The participants of the conference, including NATO Secretary General George Robertson, were expected to agree in principle on a plan to reinforce border security, which the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation sees as inadequate, with experts due to work out the details on Friday.

"Why is border security crucial? Because organised crime can too easily cross borders, creating ideal conditions for drug smuggling, gun-running, human trafficking, terrorism and political violence," Robertson told the conference.

"Together, these problems pose a real threat to stability and security in this region," he added.

Earlier Thursday Robertson told reporters that "we want to find ways to help (the Balkans) because either this region takes control of its borders or the criminals will take control of the region."

The two-day conference is organized by Macedonia, NATO and the Balkans Stability Pact in the historic Macedonian town of Ohrid, the site of a 2001 NATO-backed peace accord which ended an ethnic Albanian insurgency in the former Yugoslav republic.

The leaders of Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Romania -- all members of the 1999 Balkans Stability Pact - are taking part in the conference, held under NATO auspices.

The conference is aimed at helping the countries in the region cooperate in the fight against organized crime.

"This conference will help us fighting (various forms of) smuggling that are fundamental cancers of our societies," Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Cvrvenkovski said.

Solving problem of insecure frontiers in the Balkans was set as a priority at a meeting of leaders of the European Union and southeastern European countries, held in April in Belgrade.

The assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic in mid-March in Belgrade, attributed by the police to organized crime related to regional drug smuggling, underlined the need to set the issue as a priority.

And the European Commission pledged Wednesday to strengthen ties with the countries in the former Yugoslav federation in order to speed up their integration into the European Union, insisting however that "the constant battle to tackle corruption and organized crime" was necessary in order to reach that aim.

According to Robertson, the platform due to be agreed at the conference "is comprehensive because it sets out a number of short- and longer-term objectives for all the countries concerned."

The plan also "identifies a range of mechanisms and procedures which will help them in achieving these objectives," he added.

However, the conference in Ohrid "will not discuss border issues related to open constitutional or status questions," the Stability Pact said in a statement on its web site, referring to the unresolved status of Kosovo.

The ethnic Albanian majority in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo, under UN administration since the end of a 1999 war, is seeking independence, while Belgrade wants to bring the region under its control again.

Beside Robertson, participants in the meeting included the Secretary General of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Jan Kubis, the special coordinator of the Stability Pact, Erhard Busek, as well as representatives of the European Union and the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.

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