Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held cordial and wide-ranging talks today with Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin, during his ongoing visit to Moscow, a United Nations spokesperson said.

Slovakia today became the fifteenth European country to agree to enforce sentences imposed by the United Nations tribunal that was set up to deal with the worst crimes committed during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today he plans to discuss the situation in Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February, with Russian officials during his visit to Moscow this week.

Unlike the tensions that characterized much of the last two years, the past few months have witnessed a relatively stable security situation along the ceasefire line between the Georgian and Abkhaz sides, which could contribute to improving relations between the parties, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report.