Yugoslavs agree to hasten war crimes extradition law

The Yugoslav leadership today agreed in principle on a law to extradite Slobodan Milosevic's allies to the UN war crimes court.

Just hours after talks with a US envoy in Belgrade who threatened punitive sanctions unless the suspects are handed over to the Netherlands-based tribunal, Yugoslavia leaders said they would vote on such a law early next week.

The Speaker of the Yugoslav parliament, Dragoljub Micunovic, said after the late-night meeting that rival factions, those opposing and those advocating it, ``agreed in principle on the law on cooperation with the (UN) Hague Tribunal.

''A final text of the much-disputed legislation Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and other nationalists insist is necessary for extraditions is to be completed over the weekend and put to a vote in parliament as early as Tuesday, Mr Micunovic said.

Pierre-Richard Prosper, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, held a series of meetings yesterday to stress that Yugoslavia could lose tens of millions of dollars in badly needed US aid and US support in major monetary organisations, such as the World Bank, if the men indicted for atrocities in the recent Balkan wars remain at large.