Belgrade  - Serbian president Boris Tadic has called for the National Security Council to meet Monday to discuss the public rift between Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac and Chief of General Staff Zdravko Ponos.

"Because of their disagreement in public, each of them has a responsibility and I will analyse and propose measures all in line with my powers," Tadic told Vecernje Novosti daily on Saturday.

The conflict began when Ponos ordered generals not to attend Sutanovac's New Year reception and later when he accused the Defence Ministry of incompetence.

Belgrade  - Where until recently people quietly leafed through books in the heart of Belgrade or met to discuss literary works, today they read newspapers while drinking franchise coffee or eyeing designer clothes.

The government plan to privatize one of the older Serbian publishing houses, the Prosveta, stirred book lovers into a state of alarm amid concern that the city's oldest bookstore, which it owns, may be converted into another brand-name store.

Moscow - Serbian President Boris Tadic flew to Moscow on Wednesday to ink a multimillion-dollar energy deal with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

Under the deal, Serbia will sell a controlling stake in its oil monopoly NIS to Russian state giant Gazprom in exchange for a share in a strategic Russian pipeline through Serbia.

Serbian media reported the 51-per-cent stake was sold for 400 million euros (560 million dollars).

Belgrade - Russian energy company Gazprom and Serbian officials on Monday initialed a multimillion-dollar deal for the sale of majority stake in Serbia's oil company NIS, Belgrade media reported.

Serbia will sell 51 per cent stake in NIS to Russian Gazprom for 400 million euros (560 million dollars) in exchange for a share in the South Stream gas line - a pipeline which will carry Russian gas to Bulgaria and Serbia before heading to Western Europe

Belgrade - Several people were injured and arrested during clashes on Sunday between Serbian veterans and the police, Belgrade media reported.

Belgrade - Pressed by the global crisis and falling demand, the American giant US Steel would within "consolidation plans" suspend production in Serbia for at least three months in order to save money, a spokesman said Friday.

US Steel Serbia, launched with the purchase of a bankrupted Serbian mill in 2003, already turned off one blast furnace and was set to shut down the other, spokesman Nemanja Brkovic told the Serbian television RTS.