The European Union's foreign policy chief today urged member states to make every effort to allow the signing of an agreement on closer ties with Serbia before a parliamentary election in May.
The EU could send a clear signal to the Serbian people to encourage pro-European forces in the May 11th election by signing a long-stalled Stabilisation and Association Agreement, Javier Solana told the European Parliament.
The Netherlands and Belgium have blocked the signing, demanding the arrest and transfer to a UN court in the Hague of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, who is thought to be hiding in Serbia.
"All efforts should be made to see if we can finalise that (agreement) before May 10 and 11," Mr Solana said. "We have to make all the efforts to extend our hand to the Serbian people."
Anti-Western feeling has grown in Serbia since February's Western-backed secession of Kosovo, the Albanian-majority province under United Nations stewardship since 1999.
Polls suggest a tight election race between the pro-Western Democratic Party and the nationalist Radicals.
A fragile coalition of the Democrats, led by President Boris Tadic, and the nationalists of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica collapsed in March over whether Serbia should pursue EU membership despite the bloc's backing of Kosovo's secession.
EU foreign ministers, who regard Serbian EU membership as vital to security in the Balkans, vowed 10 days ago to find ways to boost Serbia's pro-European camp ahead of the election.
Mr Solana said everyone in the European Union wanted to see Mladic in The Hague and the best way to ensure that was to encourage moderate forces over the ultranationalist Radicals led by Tomislav Nikolic, whom Mr Tadic narrowly defeated in January.
"At the end of the day, if Nikolic wins the elections we will never have that," Mr Solana said.