Important elections Sunday in Kosovo will be watched for the turnout of its minority Serb population and as a vital step in Serbia's bid to join the European Union.

Kosovo, the territory which sparked a war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian rebels in 1998-1999, remains the main stumbling block in Serbia's membership process.

Serbia accused Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday of meddling in the country's affairs after the Turkish Prime Minister said that "Kosovo is Turkey" during a recent visit to the former Serbian province.

Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade still refuses to recognize its independence.

The widow of the former Yugoslav communist dictator Josip Broz Tito died on Sunday aged 88 after suffering heart failure, the hospital treating her said in a statement.

Jovanka Broz had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Serbia, where she spent around 30 years in isolation and poverty after her husband's death in 1980.

An EU-led court in Kosovo has sentenced 10 ethnic Albanians to up to nine years in prison for terrorism aimed at provoking a conflict in southern Serbia, officials said Thursday.

The 10 were found guilty of "terrorism and organisation/participation in a terrorist group... that executed an armed attack on (a) Serbian checkpoint", the EU rule of law mission (EULEX) said in a statement.

Former EU justice commissioner and ex-Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini has agreed to advise Belgrade on its path towards membership of the European Union, the Serbian government said Monday.

"Thanks to his exceptional and long experience at the highest level in European and world institutions, as well as his credibility within the international community, Mr Frattini will help the government of Serbia in the process of European integration," the government said in a statement.

Kosovo has rejected a request by Serbia's prime minister to visit a Serb-majority town in the breakaway territory, saying it would "interfere" with local polls next month, its deputy prime minister said Wednesday.

"We do not want officials from Belgrade to interfere with Kosovo's elections," Hajredin Kuci told Agence France Presse by phone.

Weapons including rocket launcher parts being smuggled in containers were seized by Croatian customs officials on Friday amid claims the arms came from Serbia.

The defense ministry confirmed to Agence France Presse the discovery of the illegal arms in the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka and said in a statement that "competent military experts were called to establish the kind of military equipment" found there.

Bosnia's war crimes court on Wednesday sentenced a former Bosnian Serb police chief to 14 years in prison for his role in the killing of Muslim civilians during the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo.

Goran Saric was "found guilty of crimes against humanity for his role in the expulsion, illegal detention and execution of Muslim civilians" in June and July 1992, judge Mira Smajlovic said as she pronounced the verdict.

The Serbian and Kosovo premiers will meet again next month after holding further talks Tuesday to advance their EU-brokered normalization accord, officials said.

Serb Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci met under the auspices of EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton to discuss progress on the deal, especially holding local elections on November 3.

The widow of the former Yugoslav communist dictator Josip Broz Tito has been hospitalized in Serbia in a critical state, a medical official said Friday.

Jovanka Broz, 89, was admitted to the Belgrade hospital "in an extremely critical state and doctors are fighting to save her life" said hospital director Zlatibor Loncar.