Brussels, 12/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - The French EU Presidency urged the Balkan states on Friday 7 November to set in place close cooperation to combat organised crime. “Regional cooperation of the police forces concerned should match the regional cooperation of criminal networks”, said France's Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie after a meeting in Zagreb which essentially covered the fight against organised crime. “We decided to consolidate and deepen our cooperation”, thus also involving Europol, she also announced. Cooperation envisaged should lead to the setting in place of common police formations, the preparation of a crackdown on manufacturers and smugglers of weapons, and the creation of a database on such persons, she added. A report assessing progress made should be drawn up during the second half of 2009. The French justice minister, Rachida Dati, for her part, added that cooperation “in terms of (crossborder) joint fact-finding teams” after the fashion of those within the EU, had been suggested to the countries concerned. “If we let a country join the EU without anticipating this kind of action, the European Commission would find it really difficult to supervise and monitor the fight against corruption and organised crime”, she said. The meeting brought together the justice and home ministers of the Balkan countries that wish to join the EU: - Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia - as well as Kosovo, and their French counterparts. (B.C./transl/jl)