Belgrade  - Serbia is "wasting respect" by altering the conditions it offered for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's central bank chief said in an interview released Wednesday.

"In the IMF they're surprised at the quick change of position by the Serbian government," Jelasic, a frequent and outspoken critic of government economic policies, told the daily Press.

Belgrade - Serbian parliament on Thursday approved a law against discrimination, despite objections from the Serbian Orthodox Church, conservatives and nationalists.

The 250 member parliament passed the law with 127 votes in favor and 59 against. The remaining deputies did not attend the session.

The law bans discrimination based on race, gender, national, social, ethnic, religious or sexual orientation.

Belgrade - Serbia's economy would decline by 2 per cent in 2009, instead of growing by 3.5 as was originally projected, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday, unveiling details of a new standby loan for Belgrade.

The Serbian economy would stagnate in 2010, IMF said, in contrast to recent optimistic statements by Belgrade officials, who until recently insisted that the global financial crisis would largely bypass Serbia.

Belgrade  - Serbia reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a three-billion-euro (4.06 billion dollars) loan over two years, Serbian Minister of economy Mladjan Dinkic said Wednesday.

"The agreement was reached and I expect it to be made public tomorrow by both Serbian government and the IMF," Dinkic told journalists and added that 2.2 billion euros of the loan will be used in 2009.

Belgrade - Serbia on Tuesday marked a decade since NATO started bombing it over the war in Kosovo, revisiting the horrors and many of the same questions raised during the attacks.

NATO bombed the then Yugoslavia for 78 days, until it ousted Serbian security forces from Kosovo, paving the way for the return of the ethnic Albanian population to the homes they had fled in the face of fighting with ethnic Serbian forces.

New York  - Serbian President Boris Tadic on Monday urged the United Nations to remain in Kosovo and not cut its troops and budget, but the UN said it has drastically reconfigured its presence a year after Kosovo seceded from Belgrade.

Tadic appeared before the UN Security Council in New York to request that the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) continue to function fully and protect the Serb ethnic population in the territory.

Belgrade rejected Pristina's unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008, still claiming it as a Serb province.