Belgrade, September 7 - At the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe's Third Regional Environmental Reconstruction Program (REReP) Task Force meeting held in Sarajevo today, Yugoslavia was covered under eight REReP projects worth 4m euros.

- At the meeting, which focused on the inclusion of Serbia and Yugoslavia into regional environmental programs, Serbia received full support for environmental legislative reform and environmental institution building. Most notably, support was pledged for the drafting of the Environment Protection Act and for formation of the new Environment and Natural Resources Ministry. These measures are planned by the Serbian government to go into effect in autumn - Srdja Popovic, Environment Adviser to the Serbian Prime Minister, told www.serbia-info.com, adding that Yugoslavia, attending the meeting as an equal partner for the first time since the October 5th democratic changes, would receive one seventh of the four million euros earmarked for regional projects.

Yugoslavia was allocated funds for the Stara Planina protection program, in which Bulgaria is also a participant, among several other projects. Yugoslavia was also chosen as a trial country for the development of environment investment programs. That would mean, Popovic points out, support for management training of the country's public environmental sector.

The REReP Task Force meeting was also attended by Dr Andjelka Mihajlov, head of the Serbian government's Agency for Environment Protection.