PM expected to travel to U.S. in early June

PM expected to travel to U.S. in early June

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Vucic has said that his upcoming trip to the United States is "very important and expected to produce even better relations" with that country.

"Serbia wants to have as good as possible relations with the United States, the policy of our government is to care about the future of Serbia and in the light of this we hope to have even better political and economic relations with the U.S., not wanting to by that jeopardize good relations with other countries," the prime minister said.

The Belgrade-based daily Blic also reported that the prime minister will travel to the United States in early June instead of in September as announced earlier.

"I leave to others to analyze the past," said he, and added that "our job is to, by fulfilling our commitments, show that we are a reliable partner of the U.S. in this part of Europe. We hope to have the support of America on our European path."

The paper said that Vucic's host will be U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, and that the meetings will cover "bilateral relations, solving the problem of Kosovo, strengthening of economic ties between Serbia and the U.S., with an emphasis on greater U.S. investment in agriculture."

Vucic is quoted as saying that his "appraisal" was that one of the topics will be the Bytyqi case - the murder of three U.S. citizens in 1999 in Petrov Selo, "which has not yet had a court epilogue in Serbia," writes the daily.

Vucic is expected to meet with presidential adviser Tony Blinker, "regarded as a very influential politician in Washington."

The paper states that Vucic also plans to visit the Freeport company in Phoenix, which is investing in exploration of copper ore in...