Serbian President Boris Tadic and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini described Tuesday the bilateral relations as very good.

Tadic thanked Frattini for Italy's great support to Serbia in the process of integration in the European Union, Tadic's press service said.

Tadic noted that Frattini had supported visa liberalization for Serbia and Serbian police reform, which proves his belief in Serbia's sincere intention to become a full EU member.

Italy fully supports an acceleration of the process giving Serbia the status of candidate to EU integration and hopes that this will be reached at the latest by the middle of 2011.

This is according to Italy's Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, who was speaking to the daily newspaper Blic and begins a visit to Belgrade today.

Frattini said that Italian diplomats were working flat out to ensure the opening up of the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) between the European Union and Serbia, an important step on the route towards EU access.

Italy believes that Belgrade meets all the requirements asked of the role Serbia would play in Europe, according to Frattini.

He added that the abolition of visas for Serbian citizens heading to EU countries and the unblocking of the transitory trade agreement with the EU, both decided last December, were two decisive steps on the road towards Serbiα's European integration.

Frattini then alluded to the EU-Balkans conference scheduled for June 2 in Sarajevo, underlining that the occasion represents a great opportunity for confirmation that the future of the Western Balkans lies within the European Union and a chance to sustain the advance of all countries in the region towards EU access.

The Belgrade newspaper says that Frattinìs visit to Serbia is the most important visit by an Italian politician ahead of the upcoming visit to Belgrade by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.(ANSAmed).