Belgrade - Serbia plans to raise the question of the responsibility both of Ukraine and Russia for the crippling gas crisis, the head of national supplier Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, said Thursday.

"We will ask for explanations from the Russian Jugorosgas and Gazprom, as well as the Ukrainian Naftogaz and if we find any of them unacceptable, we will raise the question of responsibility," Bajatovic told radio B92.

Jugorosgas is a majority Russian joint venture with Serbian partners with the monopoly right to supply Russian gas.

A lawsuit against Ukraine was already being prepared in Serbia, Bajatovic said. He said there was no "legal and economic ground" for proceedings against Russia.

Belgrade- Italian carmaker Fiat will begin in March the production of its Punto automobile in Serbian factory Zastava, Belgrade media reported.

Director of Zastava factory Zoran Radojevic said the agreement between Fiat and Zastava will be signed next week.

Radojevic didn't specify the amount of the production but said the factory, situated in central Serbian town of Kragujevac, can produce 20,000 cars per year and with "minimal investment" the capacity can be upgraded to 40,000 per year.

Belgrade - Serbian officials urged the country's citizens on Tuesday to help capture former Serbia military chief Ratko Mladic, who is wanted on charges of war crimes.

Rasim Ljajic, head of the National Council for Cooperation with the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, said citizens would be doing a "good thing for the state" if they reported any information on the whereabouts of Mladic and 1990s Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.

Belgrade/Sofia - Gas shortages triggered by the Russia- Ukraine row over payments have left tens of thousands of families in Serbia and Bulgaria without the ability to heat their homes at a time of freezing cold.

While most Serbian plants have switched or were in the process of switching from natural gas to oil, some - as in the cities of Novi Sad and Pancevo, servicing some
120,000 people - have shut down as gas supplies were exhausted, reports said.

Belgrade - Serbian President Boris Tadic on Tuesday sacked the army's top general, Zdravko Ponos, ending a rift that shook the defence system last week.

Tadic, who as president also serves as supreme commander of the military, appointed General Miloje Miletic as new head of the general staff, the president's cabinet said.

Ponos, 46, last week publicly criticized Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac, accusing his ministry in newspaper interviews of incompetence and corruption.

Tadic announced his decision a day after the supreme defence council met in a marathon six-hour session to discuss the Ponos- Sutanovac row.

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.