Belgrade - Many close associates of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic have regained key positions in Serbia, a press report said Saturday.

"Three have become ministers and two are running state corporations," the Belgrade newspaper Press reported.

This week saw the return of top Milosevic aide Gorica Gajevic, after an eight-year absence from the politcal stage. The former secretary-general of Milosevic's Socialist party SPS was given a senior position in Raska, a town 200 kilometres south of Belgrade.

Belgrade - The opposition ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leadership Friday expelled a renegade moderate wing in a bid to re-assert control of its detained extremist chief.

The SRS policy-making body convened amid accusations of "treason" flung at the former acting party chief, Tomislav Nikolic, who resigned a week ago and cleared room to launch his own party.

Nikolic and his followers walked out of the meeting before it ended. He said the proceedings turned into an "unending argument."

"We don't belong here. We will follow our path and SRS its own," Nikolic told journalists after he left the meeting.

Belgrade- The opposition ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) moved a step closer to disintegrating Monday when its ousted acting chief, Tomislav Nikolic, formed a new parliamentary faction.

Nikolic resigned Friday night as under pressure from party leader Vojislav Seselj, who has been on trial at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) since 2003.

Belgrade - Serbia's ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), the country's strongest single force since 2003, seems to be in the process of splitting apart, local newspapers said Saturday.

The SRS party, supported by a third of the electorate, is forming two wings, one behind moderate deputy party chief Tomislav Nikolic and the other hardline extremist, dictated by founder and leader Vojislav Seselj, who has been on trial for war crimes at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia since early 2003.

Belgrade  - The Serbian parliament on Wednesday overcame opposition to open a debate on a crucial pre-membership treaty with the European Union and several other major issues, including Kosovo.

Legislators were discussing ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement Serbia signed with EU. The treaty is a major step towards membership, but needs to be approved by all 27 member- states.

Brussels  - The European Union should reward Serbia for the capture of war-crimes indictee Radovan Karadzic by implementing a deal on trade liberalization, the EU's top official said Wednesday during a visit of Serbian President Boris Tadic to Brussels.

And European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that he believed Serbia could become a candidate for EU membership as early as in 2009 if it continues to bring in key reforms.

Describing the July capture of Karadzic as a "milestone" and a "historic moment," Barroso said "I think it should be acknowledged by implementing the trade-related parts" of a broader political deal which the EU and Serbia signed in the spring.