Accusations fly in Serbia over failure to form new coalition government

SERBIA:Serbia's president and prime minister have angrily accused each other of blocking the formation of a new coalition government, just one week before a deadline that would trigger snap elections and further strengthen the ultra-nationalist Radical Party.

Almost four months after the Radicals easily won a general election, the parties that came second and third are still wrangling over the terms of an alliance that could lead the country towards either European Union membership or deeper international isolation.

And as another round of talks between president Boris Tadic and prime minister Vojislav Kostunica failed to break the deadlock, parliament was last night expected to approve hard-line Radical Tomislav Nikolic as its speaker, the third most powerful political position in the country.

Chances for a liberal ruling coalition look bleak after the pro-Western Mr Tadic denounced Mr Kostunica, a nationalist conservative who is cooler towards the EU and Nato, for demanding control of key departments in charge of catching war crimes suspects. The premier has failed abjectly in this during three years in power.

Mr Tadic said he was willing to let Mr Kostunica remain prime minister, but insisted that "it is not possible for one party to control both the police and the state security. We have not had enough reform in that area, while . . . talks with the EU have been blocked for a year." Brussels froze talks on closer ties with Belgrade over its failure to catch several war crimes suspects, most notably Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the political and military leaders of Bosnia's Serbs during the country's 1992-1995 war.

Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations court, has often criticised Mr Kostunica and his allies for doing little or nothing to find the fugitives.

"I will not let Carla del Ponte rule my state," Serb media quoted Mr Kostunica as telling Mr Tadic during their negotiations, before he in turn accused the president's party of insisting on terms that made an alliance impossible, without specifying what they were.

Mr Kostunica has used increasingly nationalist rhetoric in recent months to oppose Western pressure on Belgrade to relinquish Kosovo, the mostly ethnic-Albanian region of Serbia that is backed by the US and major EU nations in its demand for independence.

He has also refused to rule out forming a coalition government with the Radicals, who are hostile towards the EU and Nato, refuse to hand over war crimes suspects to the UN court and vow to sever ties with any country that recognises a sovereign Kosovo.

Analysts say Mr Kostunica wants to escape blame for the "loss" of Kosovo and may seek to delay the formation of a new government so as not to be in power when the region is granted, or declares, independence.

They also warn - and surveys suggest - that snap elections would only favour the Radicals, who have not been tainted by the fiasco of the coalition talks.