Serbia coalition talks go down to the wire

SERBIA:SERBIA'S NEW parliament is due to convene today, with the pro-EU Democrats and ultra-nationalist Radicals still vying for a coalition deal with the Socialist Party once led by autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic.

On the eve of the first session since last month's inconclusive election, a court abruptly cleared Milosevic's son Marko of beating and threatening his father's opponents, in what rights activists called a politically motivated verdict aimed at persuading the Socialists to join forces with the Democrats of liberal president Boris Tadic.

After weeks of talks with the Radicals and another nationalist bloc led by outgoing prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, most analysts said the Socialists appeared to be moving towards a deal with the Democrats - though the party's promise to reveal their preference before today's parliamentary session seemed unlikely to be fulfilled.

Both the nationalist and the liberal blocs need the Socialists' 20 seats in the new parliament to clinch a majority, but major disagreements dog the prospective coalitions.

The nationalists want to freeze ties with the European Union until it stops backing Kosovo's independence, while the Democrats and the Socialists want to push ahead with European integration while still opposing the mostly Albanian region's sovereignty. It is unlikely, however, that the Socialists will support the Democrats' policy of pursuing war crimes suspects - which Brussels calls a condition of EU membership.

They will also not denounce the legacy of their former leader Slobodan Milosevic, whose hardline supporters murdered Democrat prime minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003.

The prospect of an ultra-nationalist government has prompted Mr Tadic to put aside these longstanding differences and make several public appeals to the Socialists, however.

"We need a political compromise and an agreement over a common future," he said this weekend.

"A lot of harsh words were spoken in the past, but we are ready to forgive."

While Socialist leader Ivica Dacic has played down the current party's links to the Milosevic era, the rank and file still see the former president as a hero, and have lobbied for criminal charges to be dropped against Milosevic's widow, Mira Markovic, and son, who fled to Russia after he was toppled in 2000.

Many Serbs saw politics at work in yesterday's court decision to throw out charges against Marko Milosevic for intimidating and attacking members of opposition group Otpor.

"The court decision hurt more than the beatings," said Radenko Lukovic, a victim of one of the alleged attacks.