Serbians agree on fresh poll

BELGRADE - Yugoslav reformers and backers of ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic have agreed on most of a plan for parliamentary elections but will give Milosevic allies until this evening to accept them.

Zoran Djindjic, one of the leading backers of reformist President Vojislav Kostunica, said after more than four hours of talks yesterday that Milosevic's Socialists (SPS) had agreed to dissolve the Parliament they control on October 24.

Elections would be held on December 24, he said.

"We agreed not to disclose details in public until representatives of the SPS agree on that with their party organs."

Djindjic said Milosevic's party, which is showing increasing signs of disarray, wanted members to sanction the moves, which could lead to its being swept from power in the dominant republic of the Yugoslav federation.

Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, a close Milosevic associate who, like the ousted leader, is an indicted war criminal, said the election date was agreed.

"As far as the Government and all other issues are concerned, we are continuing talks."

Mass protests this month forced Milosevic to accept defeat in September's presidential elections.

Since then, Yugoslavia has opened up to the West with amazing speed after a decade of four Balkan wars and international isolation under the authoritarian Milosevic.

Kostunica, who has received a stream of high-level Western officials in Belgrade, said upon returning from his first trip abroad as President that forming the new Government was urgent.

"I hope in the coming days ... in a week to 15 days at most, that we will be able to have a Government which can accept everything that is being opened to us as far as the support of Europe and the democratic world is concerned," he said.

At an informal European Union summit in Biarritz, Kostunica told leaders his trip was proof that the situation in Yugoslavia was normalising rapidly - "If it wasn't so, I would not be here" - and Milosevic was losing support within his own party.

"With each minute, his influence is weakening - weakening even within his own party.

"He has no political future in Yugoslavia."

- REUTERS

Herald Online feature: Revolution in Yugoslavia
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Serbian Ministry of Information

Serbian Radio - Free B92

Otpor: Serbian Student Resistance Movement