Serbia to hold general election in January

SERBIA: Government officials say Serbia will hold an early general election on January 21st, a date favoured by ultra-nationalists who hope to capitalise on public anger over the likely independence of Kosovo.

Pro-Western liberals wanted a ballot next month, before a decision on Kosovo's status, knowing it might undermine their already dwindling popularity.

Hardline followers of former president Slobodan Milosevic, meanwhile, believe they would benefit from a backlash against the government that could follow a United Nations decision to grant independence to Kosovo.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has suggested the organisation might postpone a ruling on Kosovo's status until after a Serbian election, to prevent it becoming a campaign issue upon which the Socialists and the Radical Party could capitalise.

But that has angered Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian majority, who have been told frequently by Washington and Brussels that a final decision would be made this year. Kosovo's leaders are also annoyed by suggestions that the UN might not fully recognise its independence, but instead leave individual countries to decide whether or not to acknowledge Kosovo's sovereignty.

Western diplomats fear Russia, an ally of Belgrade, would use its Security Council veto to block UN recognition.

Ahead of today's meeting in Vienna between the UN envoy to Kosovo and a contact group comprising US, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia, Kosovo's prime minister Agim Ceku suggested he might declare independence unilaterally.

"We see this as a possibility," he said, insisting he was "not threatening the UN Security Council". "How we declare independence will not be a rash decision, but one taken in accordance with our friends and strategic partners."

Skender Hyseni, a spokesman for Kosovo's negotiating team, said the region's people were tired of living in a UN protectorate, a status imposed in 1999 after Nato bombing ended a brutal Serb crackdown on ethnic-Albanian rebels and civilians.

"We expect the contact group to clarify its position on the dates and the status decision," Mr Hyseni said.

Washington, Brussels and Nato members leading a 16,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo are anxious to avoid a delay in a final decision on the region, but Belgrade is determined to hang on to its spiritual heartland.

Srdjan Djuric, a spokesman for Serb prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, this week urged UN envoy to Kosovo Martti Ahtisaari to resign, saying that any plan "written behind Serbia's back" should simply be "thrown in the bin".