EU ambassadors are meeting in Brussels to discuss Serbia's EU ambitions after the arrest last week of former Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic.
Mr Karadzic is expected to be extradited to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague this week.
Serbia's pro-EU leadership is hoping this will strengthen Karadzic to be extradited to The Hague ...
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Later on Tuesday, hardline nationalists are to take part in a mass rally in Belgrade to protest over his arrest.
Ending isolation
Serbia's President Boris Tadic is keenly in favour of joining the European Union.
But some existing members of the group, including the Netherlands, have been reluctant to countenance the idea, claiming Serbia has not dealt with the legacy of the war in the Balkans, the BBC's Duncan Bartlett in Brussels reports.
Serbia is aiming first for greater trade with the EU, and then an opportunity to discuss in detail the kind of economic and political reforms it would need to join the club, our correspondent adds.
Serbia will not attend Tuesday's meeting in Brussels, which will only include ambassadors from existing member states.
It intends to make a formal application to join the union by the end of the year.
Serbian prosecutors are still waiting for Mr Karadzic's appeal against his extradition to arrive in the post.
The lawyer for the former Bosnian Serb leader said he was going to mail the documents from a remote location in Serbia to delay the process.
The appeal is expected to be swiftly rejected and Mr Karadzic sent to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague soon afterwards.
Mass rally
Karadzic supporters are being bussed in from across Serbia and the Serb parts of Bosnia for the Belgrade rally later on Tuesday.
For these people, Radovan Karadzic is still a war hero, and there are fears the rally could lead to violence, says the BBC's Helen Fawkes in Belgrade.
Small demonstrations have been held daily in the capital since the arrest of Mr Karadzic. Protesters have clashed with police and attacked journalists.
Organisers of Tuesday's rally have promised to ensure that the event is peaceful and have said that each journalist will be given two bodyguards.
Mr Karadzic faces 11 charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity during the war in Bosnia in the 1990s.
He was arrested in Belgrade last week after nearly 13 years as a fugitive.
(BBC)
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