Serb government split over EU view of Kosovo

SERBIA:THE SERBIAN government lurched closer to collapse yesterday as its coalition partners clashed over whether to freeze their country's bid for membership of the European Union until the bloc rejects Kosovo's independence.

The row came as the EU announced a new aid package for Serbia and neighbouring states, and asked Belgrade's leaders to clarify whether they were still interested in forging closer ties with Brussels amid bitter diplomatic recrimination over Kosovo.

Serbia's ultra-nationalist Radical Party, backed by prime minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), called on parliament to pass a resolution demanding that the EU "clearly and unequivocally" recognise that Kosovo is part of Serbia before further talks take place.

"Serbia should not negotiate with any international organisation which does not recognise that Kosovo is a part of Serbia," said Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the Radicals, who are the largest force in the Serb parliament.

Mr Kostunica said Serbia must know "whether the agreements offered by the EU consider Serbia as a whole or as a crippled state".

President Boris Tadic and his liberal allies, who form a shaky ruling alliance with the DSS, also refuse to accept Kosovo's independence, but insist that it is counterproductive to reject EU accession over the issue.

"The adoption of the resolution would not preserve Serbia's territorial integrity," Mr Tadic said. "It would only help the forces which want to shift the country away from its future in the European Union."

In a magazine interview to be published today, Mr Tadic said Mr Kostunica's stance ran "contrary to the principles on which the government was formed" and he denounced "the idea of interrupting negotiations with the EU by setting conditions that are impossible to meet".

"If the government does not obtain the support of parliament . . . for European integration, they [the Radicals and DSS] could form a new majority, or we will have new elections," he said.

If supporters of the resolution use their majority in parliament to push it through, it would probably destroy the coalition that has been paralysed since Kosovo declared independence last month.

"We ask the Serbian government to reaffirm its commitment to closer ties with the EU," the bloc's enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, said yesterday.

"We are ready to move on once Serbia is ready to do the same," he added, saying there was a "silent majority" of Serbs who backed eventual EU membership.