Serbia hopes to get satisfaction on Stones gig

BELGRADE - Serbia hopes to convince rock legends The Rolling Stones to hold a concert in Belgrade this summer by offering to fund all the preparatory work for the gig.

Belgrade is not on the official 2006 tour schedule of the Stones, who play neighbouring Zagreb on July 5 and then move on to play in Germany on July 10.

A local concert organiser hopes they can fit the Serbian capital sometime in between and has persuaded the government to hold a gig, if booked, under state auspices at the Hippodrome, Belgrade's racing course with a capacity of over 100,000 people.

"This would mean public companies would do all the preparatory work at their own expense," Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic, himself an amateur rock musician, told reporters.

"They would prepare the grounds, installations, take care of all the logistics," he said during a student forum in Belgrade.

Dinkic could not say how much the concert would cost Serbia, which is still recovering from the wars and sanctions of the 1990s. The Stones were set to play Belgrade in 2003 but cancelled after then Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was murdered.

They had not yet responded to the gig proposal, concert organiser Maksa Catovic told local media.

- REUTERS