Director of the Serbian Directorate for Water Aleksandar Prodanovic told Tanjug that the situation with ice in the rivers of Serbia improved on Tuesday, pointing out that there is no more ice in the Danube, upstream to Novi Sad, and that the ice cover started to move in the lower course of the river.

Hydrological and meteorological situation in Serbia is relatively favorable at the moment, and there should be no bigger problems with the ice in major rivers in the next ten days, while a slight increase in water level is expected, he said.

There will be no more ice in Danube in four or five days, and the ice cover will remain on the river's tributaries in Banat (north-eastern Serbia) for one more week, Prodanovic said, adding that a meeting of an expert-operation team was held today, so as to discuss the current situation with the first and second order rivers in terms of floods and defense against ice.

The water level on Danube in the part of its stream through Hungary is stagnating, and on the entrance to Serbia it is decreasing, whereas the temperature of water is such that there is no chance that new ice cover will be formed, he said. The ice started to move near Smederevo, whereas in Djerdap it started to change color, which means that it will start to melt in the next days, Prodanovic pointed out.

He said that the measures taken on the Ibar River near Kraljevo (central Serbia) have produced results and that the situation is much better there today.

When it comes to the flood defense, no major rainfall is expected, snow will melt up to an altitude of 500m in the next seven days and there will be no major increase in the water level, which is at the moment in the domain of low and medium-low for this part of the year.