Pro-Western official confident his bloc will form government in Serbia

BELGRADE, Serbia: A senior pro-Western official expressed confidence Tuesday that his bloc will form Serbia's new government despite a bid by the nationalists to take power after a divisive weekend election.

Outgoing Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said the first task of the new government will be to ratify a pre-entry agreement that Serbia recently signed with the European Union.

Dinkic did not reveal whether his group — which won the most votes in the Sunday election, but not enough to govern alone — has managed to form a wider coalition that will hold the majority of seats in Serbia's 250-member parliament.

But he said the pro-Western camp was ready to do what is necessary.

"In order to take Serbia into the European Union, one must make a compromise," Dinkic said. "And such a compromise will be made."

The pro-Western camp, led by President Boris Tadic, needs the support from the Socialist Party, once led by late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, to form the new government. Tadic said he has opened "informal" talks on the formation of the new government, but did not say with which groups.

He said a nationalist-dominated government "would not be leading Serbia in a right direction, and would not bring stability" to the Balkan region.

Tadic faces a challenge from the nationalists, who have announced plans to team up and counter the election gains of the pro-Western camp. The nationalists, too, have attempted to court the Socialists.

Radical leader Tomislav Nikolic urged the Socialists to join the nationalist bloc, "and not those who have destroyed your party" — a reference to 2000 when Tadic's democrats ousted Milosevic from power.

Socialist leader Ivica Dacic said his party will start talks on the formation of the government Wednesday, but refused to say which side it will take.

Any party of coalition needs 126 seats for a majority in Parliament.

Near-complete results released by the state electoral commission gave Tadic's bloc 102 seats and the far-right Serbian Radical Party 78.

Tadic was reaching out to the Liberal Party, which won 14, and to an ethnic Hungarian party that took four seats. If Tadic persuaded the Socialists to join him with their 20 seats, he would have a total of 140 seats.

But the Radicals also had the support of the 30 deputies belonging to the Popular Coalition of outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, and if they were to get the Socialist swing seats, their alliance would total 128 seats.

The Socialists ruled Serbia in the 1990s', during Milosevic's decade-long reign. Under Milosevic, the party was blamed for inciting four wars in the Balkans and destroying Serbia's economy.

But, since Milosevic died in the custody of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in 2006, the Socialists' new leadership has sought to change the party's image, portraying it as a modern leftist group.

Party officials have not ruled out cooperation with either of Serbia's rival camps.

The election Sunday in Serbia was widely considered to be a crucial choice between pursuing EU integration for the troubled nation, or restoring defiant nationalism of the Milosevic era.

The nationalist bloc advocates dropping Serbia's bid to join the EU because more than half of the EU member states have recognized the independence of Kosovo — Serbia's cherished medieval heartland that declared independence from Serbia in February.

While Tadic also rejects independence for Kosovo, he has advocated quick integration in the European Union regardless of EU support for Kosovo's statehood.

In Brussels on Tuesday, EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana said the Serbia election showed that the citizens wanted to join the EU. He suggested the EU would support including the Socialists in the new, pro-EU government.

Dinkic said he expected the government will be formed within a month. He said "a lot of work" lies ahead, such as achieving higher salaries, or ensuring more foreign investment in the impoverished country.

"None of this can be done if we don't move toward the EU, and that is why I expect this government to be formed soon," he said.

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