11.  The Fund and the Bank say the Kosovo crisis will strain the social and economic infrastructures of these largely impoverished Balkan states.

12.  The problem is that Europe does not need the Balkans to prosper, but cannot truly be at peace unless the Balkan states prosper too.

13.  The riots were the most glaring sign yet of the mounting tension in the surrounding Balkan states in the wake of NATOs military action against Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

14.  The tragedy is that the European powers after World War I decided to divide that nation between several Balkan states.

15.  Unless the fighting ceases, Hughes said, the conflict could spread into the neighboring Balkan states of south-central Europe.

16.  What is more, the partition of Bosnia would set a bad example to ethnic minorities in other mixed-up Balkan states.

17.  Yet Bulgaria may be playing a more dangerous game than other Balkan states.

18.  Other Balkan states, who stand to gain economically if they convince rich nations that they are committed to democracy, were more positive.

19.  Prospects in most of the former Soviet Union and in some Eastern European and Balkan states would also remain hampered by shortages and financial problems, it said.

20.  A goal of eventual membership in the EU and NATO also will serve to create hope in Balkan states, Simitis said.