Serbian president asks for France's backing

PARIS, May 22 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic appealed to his French counterpart Francois Hollande on Thursday for France's backing for the holding of an international donor conference for Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia after the catastrophic floods.

"The catastrophe hit my country. We want an international donor conference to be held for Serbia, and not only for Serbia, but also for Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia," Nikolic said in talks with Hollande.

"We appeal to France to back our initiative," the Serbian president said.

"We have so far received assistance from 18 countries, this was help in rescue efforts, but now we will need another kind of assistance - to rebuild our country," Nikolic said.

Hollande said that France is really concerned about the severe floods that hit Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Serbian president's press service released.

Your visit to France is an opportunity to have your appeal heard- the appeal for assistance to Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. We can make the decision on calling a donor conference very quickly. At the moment when there are so many flood victims - we have to demonstrate our responsibility and solidarity, Hollande underlined.

The Serbian delegation also included Minister of Economy Dusan Vujovic, Foreign Policy Advisor Marko Djuric and Serbian Ambassador to France Rajko Ristic.

According to the original plans drawn up before the tragedy that has hit Serbia and the entire region, Nikolic was supposed to stay in Paris for two days but under the given circumstances, he decided to shorten his stay in France to five hours, states the release issued by the president's press service.

Photo Tanjug Video, camera...