European Union foreign ministers greeted Slobodan Milosevic's death at the weekend by renewing their promise that the former Yugoslavia would join the EU - but also by warning Serbia that it needed to get to grips with its past.

"Our goal is the western Balkans' membership of the EU," said Ursula Plassnik, Austrian foreign minister, who chaired the Salzburg meeting of ministers from the EU, the Balkans and Turkey. "Stability in the Balkans is part of our own security."