Belgrade - British actor Ralph Fiennes said Friday that he will most probably shoot his directorial debut, Shakespeare's Coriolanus, in Belgrade next spring - if he can find the financing.

Fiennes, set to open 37th Belgrade International Film Festival on Friday night, told journalists that the Serbian capital, with its combination of 19th century and communist architecture and new buildings, would be an ideal location for Coriolanus.

Belgrade - Serbia on Friday leveled the price of highway tolls for local and foreign vehicles, meeting a commitment it took on nearly seven years ago.

The double-standard which Serbia applied, charging foreign vehicles in its highways nearly twice as much as those registered in Serbia, led to a row with Athens which stranded more than 100 Serbian haulers in Greece over several days.

Belgrade promised to level the cost for all on February 5, but ordered the implementation of the promise on a regular government session Thursday.

Belgrade  - Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, in an unusual interview with Friday's edition of the conservative Belgrade daily Politika, called on Serbia to acknowledge the "fact they are facing" and recognize Kosovo.

"Nobody in Belgrade believes Kosovo could return to become a part of Serbia. Serbian politicians face the fact of our independence everywhere they go, to Washington, Brussels, even in Podgorica and Skopje," Thaci said.

Kosovo, with a 90-per cent Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia a year ago with the support of leading Western nations.

Belgrade  - Serbia is to pay 1 million dollars to relieve the pressure for extradition of a Serbian athlete who skipped bail in the United States after a near-fatal beating of a fellow student, local reports said Friday.

The daily Politika quoted "reliable sources" from Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic's cabinet saying that Serbia would pay a 900,000- dollar-compensation claim and 100,000 for bail to keep the fugitive, Miladin Kovacevic, at home.

Kovacevic, a 21-year-old former basketball player at Binghamton University in New York, is accused of assaulting fellow student Bryan Steinhauer in a bar brawl in May. He fled home on an emergency passport, issued after his family posted bail.

Pristina/Belgrade - Kosovo Albanians began celebrating the first year of independence Tuesday, while minority Serbs and Belgrade leaders vowed to continue challenging the secession.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and President Fatmir Sejdiu addressed the parliament in Pristina at a solemn session and paid respect to prominent politicians and rebels who launched the fight against Serbian authority in the 1990s.

Belgrade - The Serbian parliament on Tuesday passed new procedural rules in an attempt to end a stalemate that has resulted in a huge legislative backlog.

The new rules limit the time for debate on amendments the opposition proposes on bills and cuts the potential for delaying tactics of the sort that have effectively stalled the parliament since May 2008.

The measures also introduced a mandatory monthly session wherein parliamentarians will be able to pose questions to the prime minister and his cabinet.