Serbia Adrift as UN Mulls Kosovo Independence

Serbia sank further into crisis on Wednesday as deadlocked coalition talks and bitter spats among leaders threatened to create a power vacuum just as the United Nations mulls independence for breakaway Kosovo province.

It was unlikely a coalition would emerge from the inconclusive Jan 21 election despite weeks of haggling between Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, and the pro-Western Democrats of President Boris Tadic.

Kostunica backed the election of ultranationalist Tomislav Nikolic as parliament speaker, enraging the Democrats, who said the PM tried to blackmail them into a deal before May 14, the date after which a new election must be called.

"I foresee new elections," said Nikolic, deputy leader of the Radicals, Serbia's strongest party. There was "no way" he would prop-up Kostunica in a coalition government, he added.

"There will be no coalition deal, we'll pass a few laws this week and parliament will be dissolved," Nikolic said.

Commentators said the coalition talks and the election of Nikolic were a "charade", a front for the real issue: the looming independence of Kosovo, whose Albanian majority expects to get its own state by summer over Serbia's objections.

The European Union presidency expressed concern at Nikolic's election and urged formation of a government that reaffirmed a pro-EU stance.

The United States and European Union are working on a resolution giving Kosovo independence after eight years of UN stewardship. Serbian ally Russia wants more negotiations.

"As long as there's no government nor parliament...there is noone in Belgrade who could sign independence of any kind for Kosovo," wrote the daily Dnevnik of Slovenia, a fellow former Yugoslav republic already in the European Union.

No Serb politician wanted to be a traitor, it said.

FRAGILE DEMOCRACY

"The price they're ready to pay, as every new election makes the Radicals stronger, obviously does not seem too high."

The West is wary of a nationalist backlash over Kosovo, the Serbs' religious and cultural heartland. The U.N. took over the province after NATO expelled Serb forces in 1999 to stop the killing of civilians in a two-year separatist war.

Nikolic's election confirmed fears the fragile democracy might be headed back to the isolation and nationalism of the era of Slobodan Milosevic, less than seven years after the late strongman was overthrown.

The U.S. State Department said the rhetoric in the Serb parliament echoed the "hate speech" of Milosevic, who led Serbia into war and poverty in the 1990s. The EU cautioned Serbs they must choose between nationalism and a normal future in Europe.

Tadic, the EU's strongest ally in Serbia, has meanwhile called Kostunica's bluff, asking if his alliance in parliament with the Radicals would extend to a coalition deal.

"If this parliamentary majority has a candidate for Prime Minister, please tell me by Friday," he said in a statement.

If not, he would decide whether to give a mandate to another candidate with three days until May 14, or call new elections.