UN Secretary-General pleased with southeast European countries' progress

Wrapping up his tour of southeastern Europe which he began in Slovenia on 20 July, the United Nations' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Sarajevo on Thursday that he was satisfied with the progress he had seen in the countries in the area of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

"The region has come such a long way from twenty years ago when war ravaged these lands," the UN chief said at a news conference at the airport in the Bosnian capital before his departure.

On Thursday morning he visited Srebrenica.

Apart from Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were the first and the last stops of his tour, Ban also travelled to Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia. (Hina)