Mr Dragan Marsicanin, the Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, welcomed today at the Assembly Dr Allen Kassof, the president of the American organisation ` The Project on Inter-Ethnic Relations` (PER) and Mr Alex Grigoriev, its programme director. Mr Marsicanin thanked the guests for the invitation to participate in the `round table` on inter-ethnic relations, entitled ` New Yugoslavia and Its Neighbours in the New Millenium`which is to be held on December 14-15, 2001 in Belgrade.

During their visit to the Assembly, the PER delegation also met with Mr Meho Omerovic, the Chairman of the Committee on Inter-Ethnic Relations. The guests gave their impressions of their visit to Pristina and of many talks they had there. They were also interested whether the authorities in Serbia and Yugoslavia would support the participation of Serbs in the forthcoming elections in Kosovo or not.

Mr Omerovic thanked the guests for their support and encouragement for the democratic changes in the country and stressed that Serbian authorities (DOS) were giving special attention to the solving of problems related to the political situation in Kosovo. Considering the forthcoming elections of November 17 in the province, Mr Omerovic said that the final statement of DOS presidency on this issue of utmost importance was to be expected by the end of the week.