A south-eastern European conference on preventing illegal migration and related crime was held Tuesday at Brdo pri Kranju in northern Slovenia. The conference, the fourth of its kind in the region, was attended by the interior ministers of Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania and Albania, and delegations from Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary and Turkey. Representatives called for a comprehensive and harmonised approach of all countries in the region in improving the fight against illegal migration and the accompanying organised crime. "This poses a threat to a faster development of South Eastern Europe", ministers said in a joint statement at a conference on Tuesday. Slovenian Interior Minister Rado Bohinc said the countries have reached a firm agreement on controlling the "Balkan route", a major corridor for human, drug and weapons trafficking from the Middle East and Asia via the Balkans into the European Union. Ministers also asked the E.U. to help carry part of the burden in tackling illegal migration, a problem that affects the entire continent. --SP 2227 Local Time 1927 GMT
