Belgrade  - Around 10 people were injured in an explosion in an ammunition factory in the central Serbian town of Krusevac, local media reported on Tuesday.

Belgrade - President Boris Tadic's Democrats and their Socialist partners in Serbia's ruling coalition were due Tuesday to tie up loose ends still dangling three months after elections by appointing the Belgrade mayor.

Former foes, the Democratic Party (DS) and the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in June buried their hatchets to form a pro-European Serbian government, but the agreement remained elusive on the local level in Belgrade.

Instead, days after May 11 parliamentary and local polls in Serbia, The Socialists announced a coalition to rule Belgrade with the nationalist bloc, comprising the Serbian Radical Party and former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia.

Belgrade  - A Belgrade publisher said Saturday it had withdrawn the Serbian translation of the book Jewel of Medina by US writer Sherry Jones following protests by Muslims.

"We did not wish to provoke anyone and we apologize," the publisher, Beobook, said in a statement.

The book describes the Muslim Prophet Mohammed's relationship with his favourite wife, Aisha.

Serbia's Muslim community had strongly protested the publication of the book when it was announced.

Belgrade  - Serbia's ultranationalist opposition party on Wednesday accused President Boris Tadic and "his regime" of provoking clashes that broke out during a protest over the arrest of war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

The Radical Party's claim was in line with a stream of anti-government rhetoric at Tuesday's rally in Belgrade, which the party organized. Hours later, Serbia extradited Karadzic to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

Belgrade  - Serbia's government Tuesday sought buyers for its ailing JAT airline, saddled debt and aging planes.

JAT's debt totalled 247 million euros (388 million dollars) and its assets 162 million euros at the end of 2007, the Serbian privatization agency said in its notice in the Politika daily, which called for tenders within two days.

Serbia is lowering its price for JAT from a hoped-for 150 million euros for a 51-per-cent stake, Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said last week. The state may sell up to 75 per cent of the airline if the offer is right, he said.

Serb media have cited Russia's Aeroflot, Icelandair and Air India as possible buyers for the 81-year-old airline, which has nine Boeing 737s and three ATR turboprops.