Stanko Nick, president of the commission which took charge of the clearance work near the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, said: "Every single inch of the Danube has been searched and cleaned."

Nick, who is also Croatian ambassador to Hungary, said "the region of Novi Sad is now the safest part of the Danube."

He said the commission estimated the blocking of river traffic had cost the Danube region some one million euros (dollars) per day.

The clearance work began in January 2001 and by November of that year a partial navigation capacity was restored.

The European Union footed 85 percent of the 26 million euros (31 million dollars) in costs, with voluntary contributions by other states covering the rest.

Two of the three destroyed bridges have been rebuilt. The third is still under construction while a pontoon bridge is providing temporary passage.

The Danube Commission's mission is to maintain the river -- one of the longest in Europe -- in a navigable condition and to carry out maintenance work.

The 11 member states of the commission are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Macedonia, and the Ukraine.

NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his troops from the province of Kosovo, where an ethnic Albanian majority was being attacked.

WAR.WIRE