Tadic win brings Serbia closer to Europe

The EU welcomed with relief yesterday the re-election of pro-Western Boris Tadic as president of Serbia and said it would accelerate moves towards EU candidacy for the biggest former Yugoslav republic.

Sunday's vote was regarded as a referendum on how Serbia should deal with the West and in particular the European Union, given the imminent loss of the breakaway province of Kosovo.

"The results for me at least signalled the wish of the majority of the people in Serbia who want to continue the path towards Europe, and I'd like to say Europe is very happy with that," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters.

"We will continue working with Serbia and we'd like Serbia to get as close as possible, as rapidly as possible, toward the European road."

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso called Mr Tadic's narrow win over pro-Russian nationalist Tomislav Nikolic "a victory for democracy in Serbia and for the European values we share".

The EU executive wanted to speed up Serbia's progress towards EU membership, starting with the signing of an interim cooperation agreement on trade, political dialogue, visa liberalisation and education cooperation, he said.

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said he expected to sign the interim accord on Thursday, based on contacts he had had last week with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

"The next step will be the signing of a political cooperation agreement on Thursday 7th." He said in an interview he looked forward to working with Mr Tadic to enable Serbia to achieve EU candidate status later this year.

However, an EU official said it was still unclear whether nationalist Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica wanted the accord signed just a few days before the EU is due to approve sending a police and justice mission to help supervise Kosovo.

Sources in Serbia's government said there was still no consensus on signing the deal, which had caused great uncertainty and suspicion among the coalition partners.

Mr Kostunica warned Brussels last month it would have to choose between ties with Serbia and support for an independent Kosovo, and sending the police mission would be a hostile act.

EU officials said ministers would approve the Kosovo mission no later than February 18 and the EU hoped Kosovo's Albanian majority would not declare independence until early March.

Mr Tadic says EU membership must remain a priority whatever happens, but analysts say his narrow victory may have set up a fresh struggle over Serbia's future course.

Mr Nikolic, who took 47.8 per cent of the vote, advocated turning to Russia in place of the West. Mr Kostunica declined to back either candidate in Sunday's run-off and analysts said his party's fragile coalition with Mr Tadic's pro-European reformists might break apart over the secession of Kosovo.

EU foreign ministers offered last week to sign an interim accord on February 7 because Belgrade has not yet met a key condition for a formal EU Stabilisation and Cooperation Agreement - full cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal.

Mr Solana said he would speak to Mr Tadic later yesterday to discuss signing the pact "if possible in the coming days". In a statement, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France expected "concrete acts" from Mr Tadic and the Serbian government to anchor Serbia in the European Union, starting with full cooperation with the UN tribunal.