PODGORICA (AFP) -- The European Union resumed talks with Montenegro Tuesday on closer ties that should eventually lead to the Balkan state joining the 25-member bloc.

Negotiations on an association and stabilization agreement, first step towards EU membership, were relaunched following Montenegro's May 21 referendum decision to separate from Serbia and later proclamation of independence.

The EU had previously begun talks with then union of Serbia and Montenegro but suspended them in May over Serbia's failure to arrest Bosnian Serb wartime military chief Ratko Mladic, the most wanted war crimes suspect, and hand him over to the Hague-based UN tribunal.

Gordana Djurovic, Montenegro's minister for European integration, has said this round of talks will cover institutions, justice and police.

Montenegro's Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, has said he hopes to conclude the talks and sign an agreement by the end of this year.

A speedier approach to the EU was a key argument of his pro-independence government, which argued that Serbia had been slowing down Montenegro's integration into the EU.

Having recognized Montenegro as a new state, the EU decided in July to adopt a new mandate for negotiations and resume these as soon as possible.

Talks with Serbia will continue once it reaches "full cooperation" with the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague, notably when it hands over Mladic, wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia.