Belgrade - The global financial crisis and a shortage of funds would probably scupper Serbia's plans to privatize big companies in 2009, reports quoting officials and experts said Wednesday.

"We need no additional revenue for the budget, so we should not sell under the price," Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic told the daily Blic.

A day earlier, Dinkic announced the government's plan to invest 130 million dollars in the mine and smelter RTB Bor - which already went through a failed privatization
- instead of selling it.

Belgrade  - Greek authorities banned Serbian hauliers from entering Greece on Sunday, in a row over higher road charges for foreign firms using Serbian roads, Belgrade media have reported.

Ten days ago Athens again warned Belgrade that it would not renew Serbian permits because Serbia continues to violate a treaty on road tolls that it signed with Greece in
2002. According to the treaty, charges were to be the same for both Greek and Serbian drivers.

Although Belgrade has not implemented the treaty, Serbian officials said they were surprised by the Greek move.

Belgrade - Thousands of Albanians in southern Serbia protested Monday asking for an immediate release of a group of Albanians arrested in December over crimes against Serbs, Belgrade media reported.

Around 3,000 Albanians gathered in Presevo town in southern Serbia, near a border with Kosovo, demanding the release of members of the so-called Gnjilanska group suspected of murdering, torturing and raping Kosovo Serbs from 1999 to 2001.

Belgrade - The governor of Serbia's central bank on Saturday welcomed a 530.3-million-dollar standby loan from the International Monetary Fund to help it weather the global financial crisis, calling it a "positive mark" for Serbia's economy.

The IMF approved the loan on Friday. Under the deal, 353.3 million dollars would be immediately available to Serbia. However, the government has said it only plans to tap the 15-month standby arrangement if absolutely necessary.

"There is still no need to use those funds," central bank governor Radovan Jelasic told Belgrade media.

Belgrade - One person has died and hundreds have been injured in Serbia after slipping on ice caused by freezing rain that's been falling for days, local media reported Thursday.

An elderly man died Thursday after falling on ice, while emergency rooms around the country are packed with people that have suffered broken arms, legs or hips.

More than 850 people were treated in Belgrade's Clinical Centre alone in the past 48 hours, hospital's spokesman Drago Jovanovic told journalists. "This is the worst rush we had in the past 15 years," he said.

Belgrade - Serbia plans to raise the question of the responsibility both of Ukraine and Russia for the crippling gas crisis, the head of national supplier Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, said Thursday.

"We will ask for explanations from the Russian Jugorosgas and Gazprom, as well as the Ukrainian Naftogaz and if we find any of them unacceptable, we will raise the question of responsibility," Bajatovic told radio B92.

Jugorosgas is a majority Russian joint venture with Serbian partners with the monopoly right to supply Russian gas.

A lawsuit against Ukraine was already being prepared in Serbia, Bajatovic said. He said there was no "legal and economic ground" for proceedings against Russia.