Stockholm - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and visiting Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Tuesday that while they differ over the status of Kosovo, both support future Serbian membership in the European Union.

Bildt told reporters there was "nothing to fear" over Serbia's plans to ask the General Assembly of the United Nations next month to ask the International Court of Justice to give "an opinion" on the secession by the breakaway province of Kosovo.

Jeremic said Belgrade had "acted with utmost restraint" after Kosovo declared its unilateral declaration of independence in February and had "opted for diplomacy and international law" rather than sanctions or other means.

Stockholm has recognized Kosovo despite the failure of the UN Security Council to agree on Kosovo's status, mainly over resistance from Russia - one of the five veto powers.

Jeremic said one of the Serbian government's main priorities was to secure status as a candidate member of the 27-nation EU - and preferably before Sweden assumes the rotating presidency of the bloc in July 2009.

EU foreign ministers were next week slated to discuss "unfreezing" the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union that is part of the pending process toward full-fledged membership talks.

A stumbling block has been that some key war crime fugitives, including Ratko Mladic, remain at large.

Jeremic said Serbia was cooperating "fully" with the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and expected a favourable review from ICTY special prosecutor Serge Brammertz who was due to visit Belgrade on Wednesday.

Asked why Mladic remained at large, Jeremic noted that Mladic was "a wartime commander" hiding in a mountainous region, and drew comparisons with failed US efforts to track down Osama bin Laden.

Bildt added that it was "likely that Mladic has a more effective and extensive network than Karadzic" had, referring to the former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic who was captured in July. (dpa)