BELGRADE, Serbia, May 3 (UPI) -- Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus has resigned in the wake of the European Union calling off association talks.
Labus submitted his resignation Wednesday to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who failed to keep his promise to Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic will be transferred to the U.N. tribunal by last Sunday.
At a news conference in the government building, Labus said he resigned because the European Union had interrupted the talks with Serbia-Montenegro after Belgrade missed Sunday's deadline to hand over Mladic.
He said he will suggest government ministers from his G-17-Plus party of experts and technocrats leave the Kostunica Cabinet.
However, Labus said his party in parliament will continue supporting Kostunica's government as long as talks on the future of Serbia's mostly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province are under way.
In his resignation letter, Labus told Kostunica the EU called off the talks on stabilization and association because "our government, contrary to your explicit promise, has not safeguarded political conditions for a continuation of the talks."
Labus said "one of the most important interests of the country and the citizens of Serbia has failed to materialize. I do not wish to participate in such a policy."
