Southeast European countries agreed in a regional conference to increase border security to fight organized crime, the Croatian official news agency Hina reported yesterday.

The agreement was reached on the fourth ministerial conference on border security in Southeast Europe, which ended in the southern Adriatic resort of Dubrovnik yesterday.

Croatian Interior Minister Ivica Kirin said that all Southeast European states agreed that strengthening international police cooperation and border services, in line with the best European practice and Schengen standards, was an important prerequisite for successfully fighting the increasingly capable international organized crime which possessed state-of-the-art equipment.

The intention of the event was to bring Southeast European countries closer to better transborder cooperation in suppressing organized crime, the report said.

Participants underlined that all states in the region had organized their border police forces and significantly improved the implementation of EU standards in line with agreed strategies.

A total of 110 participants from 20 states attended the three-day conference, which was jointly organized by the Croatian Interior Ministry and the Geneva-based Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2007)