Belgrade, Sep 1 (DPA) Days after Serbia signed a $100 million arms contract with Iraq, Baghdad is asking Belgrade to return 19 fighter planes that were sent to Serbia in 1989 for servicing, Belgrade media reported Tuesday.

The Iraqi Defence Ministry sent a note Monday to Serbian authorities demanding the return of MiG-21 and MiG-23 planes as soon as possible, and a delegation had gone to Serbia over the weekend to start the process, the daily Vecernje Novosti reported.

Complicating the return of the planes is the fact that most of them had been disassembled, and parts were stored in army warehouses, Vecernje Novosti reported. Only one MiG-23, on display in Belgrade's Air Force museum, is whole, the daily said.

When the planes were first sent to Serbia, they were to be repaired in the Croatian factory Zmaj.