SERBIA and Montenegro should hand over four generals wanted for war crimes in the next six weeks if it is to retain hopes of joining the European Union.

That was the conclusion of President Marovic, speaking yesterday to The Times after a 40-minute meeting with Tony Blair.

He dearly hopes that Brussels might make an exception for its two most-wanted suspects Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army chief, and Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader. But for four other generals sought by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Mr Marovic believes that the end of next month should be the deadline for compliance. “Without co -operation with the tribunal, we stay in the past,” he said. “Any further postponing would mean Serbia-Montenegro would shut down.”

The stark message — directed at his own uncomfortable hybrid of a country, as well as at Brussels — reflects the peculiarity of his position. A lawyer by training, Mr Marovic, 49, was inaugurated in March 2003, shortly after the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro was created out of the remnants of Yugoslavia to stem further Balkans disintegration.

Mr Marovic, a Montenegrin, has little difficulty in saying that Serb generals should be handed over to the tribunal. Nor, coming from the more European-orientated of the two states, is he shy about his belief that the only happy future for either lies in becoming closer to Europe. His problem is that he has little influence over Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, who heads a fragile coalition government and who has been hostile to the idea of surrendering war crimes suspects.

The end of next month is a deadline of Mr Marovic’s choosing, but is necessary, he feels, to catch the wave of EU enlargement before it passes his country by. “Six weeks is not much time,” he admitted, “but even in one day, you can do a lot — or very little in one year if you do not want to.” The question of the war crimes suspects stands as a huge barrier between Serbia and Montenegro and modernity, stalling political integration and choking foreign investment. Last November Carla Del Ponte, the war crimes tribunal prosecutor, accused powerful elements in Belgrade of helping General Mladic to avoid capture. Her report also accused Bosnia and Croatia of similar resistance, but less harshly.

Mr Marovic is dismissive of what he suggests is Ms Del Ponte’s preoccupation with General Mladic, who is wanted for questioning about the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica of 8,000 men and boys. “We are creating a future for our people. She is just creating another prosecution case.”

Dr Karadzic presents Belgrade with a slightly less damaging quandary as he is thought to be in Bosnia and beyond its jurisdiction. “We are ready to show willing to bring Karadzic and Mladic to face justice,” Mr Marovic said, but “in the meantime there are things we can do faster regarding the generals”. The Hague wants Belgrade to hand over generals Nebojsa Pavkovic, Sreten Lukic, Vlastimir Djordjevic and Vladimir Lazarevic.

The President shows some envy of Croatia, which was told at the end of last year that it could start EU accession talks in March, despite having failed to hand over General Ante Gotovina, who is high on The Hague’s wanted list and a hero to many Croatians. “We are rooting for Croatia” in its EU bid, Mr Marovic said, “but Croatia has received the status of a candidate country even though it has not sent Gotovina. We want the same status.”

Western officials say that Serbia and Montenegro is in danger of deluding itself that Brussels might similarly overlook the Mladic case. EU feelings about Mladic ran higher, he said, and Croatia was seen as more co-operative.

If Serbia and Montenegro does not comply with the tribunal, Mr Marovic cautions, “then the door to a European future will be firmly closed”. That could also prompt Montenegro to break away, feeling that it was unfairly punished for Serbia’s stubbornness. It would also put the country on diplomatically shaky ground in trying to negotiate the future of Kosovo.

Mr Marovic did not quite say that he could imagine an independent Kosovo, something that is anathema to Serb nationalists and to the province’s Serb minority.

No progress towards talks about its final status has been made and Kosovo remains under uneasy international administration. But the issue is less damaging to Serbia and Montenegro’s European hopes simply because it is not expected to have an early resolution.

• Two senior Bosnian Serb army officers were convicted yesterday for their involvement in the massacre at Srebrenica. Colonel Vidoje Blagojevic, 54, a wartime commander of the Bratunac Brigade, which took part in the killing, was sentenced to 18 years for complicity in genocide and other war crimes.

  Dragan Jokic, 47, a major in the Zvornik Brigade, who assumed command during the killing, received a nine-year sentence. He was convicted of murder, extermination and persecution on racial grounds.

  Blagojevic is the second person to be convicted of genocide in connection with Srebrenica. The highest ranking officer is General Radislav Krstic, who is serving a 35-year sentence.

  The massacre in July 1995 was Europe’s worst atrocity since the Second World War.

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