BELGRADE, November 9, 2010 (AFP) - Serbia on Tuesday vowed to take tougher measures, including strengthening its border control, in order to stem the rise of its citizens seeking asylum in EU countries.

In a phone conversation with Sweden's Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Tobias Billstrom, Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic promised to strengthen control on border crossing with Hungary, the ministry said in a statement.

Serbia "will also probe tourist agencies and individuals who transport fake asylum seekers to Sweden," the ministry quoted Dacic as saying.

Out of several European Union countries hit by a wave of Serbian asylum seekers, Sweden has born the brunt of the trend with some 5,600 requests this year, the statement said.

The ministry added that those Serbian citizens who have requested asylum in Sweden are "exclusively Roma". Serbia has a considerable Roma minority with 108,000 Romas registered in the last census in 2001 but the actual number is estimated to be at least five times higher.

Billström said the asylum requests were unfounded and the applicants would be returned to Serbia as soon as possible, it added.

Since the EU abolished visa-requirement system for Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro last December some EU member states, notably Sweden, Belgium and Germany, have seen an increase of asylum seekers from those countries, mostly Roma and Albanians.

According to a local media report, police has already launched a probe into the affair in the southern town of Nis, Serbia's third largest city, where thousands of Kosovo Albanians obtained false residence permits and passports.

Kosovo, which unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in February 2008, is excluded from the EU visa-free regime.

The European Union on Monday agreed to extend visa-free travel rights to Albania and Bosnia but with a tight monitoring system and the possibility of suspending the privilege in case of abuses. The measure will come into force by mid-December.