* Aid to Serbia Frozen-To Yugoslavia, Defferred *Deferral Not Open-ended; * ____
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday deferred a ruling on whether Yugoslavia should get the rest of its aid this year pending more help from Belgrade to a U.N. war crimes tribunal, a U.S. official said. (Read photo caption within)We've decided not to decide," the State Department official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, adding that there was no specific timeframe for Powell to make up his mind on the issue and that a statement would be released shortly.Another U.S. official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the deferral was not open-ended and indicated that a final decision should be expected sooner rather than later. But he declined to predict how long it would take.
Aid to Serbia, the dominant republic in the former Yugoslavia, is now frozen until Belgrade does more to help the Netherlands-based court that is trying former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevi but wants more suspects to face its justice.
Under U.S. law, Powell had to rule by March 31 whether Belgrade had passed a series of "democracy tests."
Belgrade got pass marks on two benchmarks -- implementing peace accords that ended Bosnia's war and on rule of law measures, but failed on working with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the first official said.
The second official said there was no one transfer that Washington was demanding in return for the approximately 40 million in aid Washington has yet to disburse for this financial year, out of a total of 119 million.
Washington is pressing Belgrade to surrender former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic to the court in The Hague. It also wants to see wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic face justice.
Powell's deferred ruling followed a decision earlier Monday by the Yugoslav government to cooperate fully with the ICTY, a move that Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic followed up by saying handovers of suspects should follow.
However, this was clearly not enough for Powell, forced by U.S. law to decide for a second year running whether Belgrade was doing enough. Last year, Belgrade made the grade and won U.S. attendance at an international donors' conference, rewards for its ouster of Milosevic, later handed over to The Hague.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Secretary of State Colin Powell April 1, 2002 deferred a ruling on whether Yugoslavia should get the rest of its aid this year pending more help from Belgrade to a U.N. war crimes tribunal, a U.S. official said. Powell is shown addressing the World Economic Forum on Feb. 1. Photo by Pool/Reu