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Croat-Serb talks

start on reopening

rail, road, air traffic

BELGRADE: In another sign of gradual normalisation, Croatian experts arrived on Wednesday in Belgrade to discuss reopening road, rail and air traffic.

Croatia and Serb-led Yugoslavia, which fought a bitter six-month war in 1991, earlier this year agreed in principle to re-establish communication and traffic links, but so far only telephone lines have been reconnected.

Full recognition is still lagging over some unresolved territorial issues left over from 1991.

The war erupted when ethnic Serbs in Croatia, supported by Belgrade, rebelled against Croatia's secession from former Yugoslavia. An estimated 10,000 people were killed.

Croatia last year took back most of the territories Serbs had captured and tried to keep as their separate state.

Sources close to the Serb--Croat talks said traffic between the two countries could resume within weeks. A five-mile stretch of highway between Yugoslavia and Croatia has been cleared of land mines.-AP