The Saturday meeting between the directors and editors-in-chief of the Balkan news agencies and Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic ended the two-day session of the General Assembly of the Association of the Balkan News Agencies - Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE) hosted by Serbian News Agency Tanjug in Belgrade.

The representatives of the ABNA-SE stated earlier on Saturday that one of the greatest problems that news agencies are faced with is how to sell news items on the Internet and secure them from theft.

The participants discussed the relation that the media have toward minorities and agreed the Southeastern region has made progress in this area.

The directors and editors were received by Serbian President Boris Tadic on Friday.

The 19th General Assembly of (ABNA-SE) was opened by Serbian Minister of Culture Nebojsa Bradic.

The participants of the ABNA-SE General Assembly were Agerpres (Romania), ANA-MPA (Greece), Anadolu (Turkey), BTA (Bulgaria), CNA (Cyprus), MIA (Macedonia), SRNA (Republika Srpska) and Tanjug.

The directors and chief editors of FENA (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Moldpres (Moldova) and STA (Slovenia) were present in the form of observers, while representatives of MINA (Montenegro), Greek daily Kathimerini and the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) were present as guests.