On September 3 2008, a delegation of top Serbian officials headed by president Boris Tadic and including prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic, foreign minister Vuk Jeremic and deputy prime minister in charge of European Union integration Bozidar Đelic arrived in Brussels for talks aimed at accelerating Serbia's accession into the bloc, Serbian private broadcaster B92 reported.

The Serbian politicians are scheduled to meet the president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, European commissioner for enlargement Olli Rehn, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and European Parliament speaker Hans-Gert Poettering.

"We can't go on without Europe, and that's why all the processes must be accelerated, including implementation of the interim trade agreement," Tadic said before leaving Belgrade, referring to EU having put on hold the promulgation of the agreement until Serbia achieves full co-operation with the Hague war crimes tribunal, B92 reported, saying Tadic also stressed Serbia needs to ratify the Stabilisation and Association Agreement it signed with the bloc earlier in 2008 as soon as possible.

Upon entering office in July, the new Serbian cabinet placed EU integration on top of its agenda, which pleased the bloc but did not alter its stance co-operation with the Hague was the key prerequisite for all future negotiations.

The Serbs said the tribunal's most wanted fugitive Radovan Karadzic's arrest and extradition to the Netherlands later in July was proof that they would eventually seal the deal, but some EU members still insist on seeing The Hague's remaining two indictees, one of whom Karadzic's close aide and top military commander Ratko Mladic, being brought to justice before considering a more intense dialogue with Serbia.

B92 quoted Jeremic as saying that another topic of discussion in Brussels would be Kosovo and the deployment of EU's rule of law mission, EULEX, in the former Serbian province.