BRUSSELS, January 13, 2004 - The president of Serbia and Montenegro said on Tuesday he was confident pro-reform forces would form a government in Serbia despite a strong showing by ultra-national radicals in recent elections.
Speaking at the European Parliament, President Svetozar Marovic said his country was determined to catch up with its Balkan neighbours in boosting ties with the European Union.
"This is not a time of further radicalisation but a time when both in Serbia and in Montenegro everything should be done to broaden...the national consensus concerning the European and development priorities of Serbia and Montenegro," he said.
"The democratic forces that are currently working to form a new democratic government will have this in mind, which will make it possible to carry on with democratic, reform-oriented and pro-European processes," he told EU lawmakers.
Marovic noted that pro-reform parties together won more than 60 percent of the votes in last month's general elections.
Caretaker Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic said last week Serbia's pro-democracy parties were considering a temporary minority government as a solution to the inconclusive poll.
Serbia's ultra-nationalist Radical Party came first in the elections but cannot govern on its own and the European Union has appealed to reform-minded parties to unite to retain power.
Zivkovic's Democratic Party, the conservative Democratic Party of Serbia, the liberal G17 Plus, and a small monarchist bloc won a majority between them.
Serbia and Montenegro would cooperate with The Hague war crimes tribunal, Marovic said. But it was difficult to be caught between the court's doubts that the country was cooperating well enough and a public feeling the tribunal was biased, he added.
He said he hoped for a positive result from a European Commission study on whether the EU can open talks towards a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Serbia-Montenegro.
Such an agreement would be an important step on the path to potential future EU membership.
"We are very happy to see that Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania are ahead of us in this (EU) progress but our aim is to catch up with them," he told a news conference.
Slovenia joins the EU in May while Bulgaria and Romania are entry candidates for 2007. Croatia already has a stabilisation agreement with the EU, which sets a framework for ties.
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