Groundswell for snap Serb election after Montenegro

BELGRADE, May 24 (Reuters) Talk of an early national election has increased in Serbia following Montenegro's decision at the weekend to dissolve its union with Belgrade and declare independence later this summer.

The departure of Montenegro and the dissolution of the state union over the coming weeks will require at the very least a reshuffle in the Serbian government and the creation of defence and foreign ministries, until now shared with Montenegro.

But the two-year-old, minority centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has been weakened by defections and is already under the threat of a walkout later in the year by its key ally, the liberal G17 Plus party.

''The 'Yes' vote for independence in Montenegro has prompted debate in Serbia on what happens next,'' the Belgrade daily Kurir said today.

''Everyone agrees Serbia needs at least to reform the cabinet to include ministries of defence and foreign affairs, while opposition parties say it is time for snap elections.'' The next scheduled national election is due in 2007.

Montenenegro's departure closes the last chapter of the breakup of federal Yugoslavia, leaving Serbia alone to manage its next trauma, the likely amputation of its Kosovo province, now under the control of the United Nations and a 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority demanding independence.

The secretary general of the opposition Radical Party, Serbia's most popular and most nationalist political grouping, said an early election was its key condition.

''We will not take part in any government before elections.

Elections first, and only then a new government,'' Aleksandar Vucic told reporters in the Serbian parliament.

DEADLINE OCTOBER FIRST Deputy Prime Minister Miroljub Labus of G17 Plus resigned from the cabinet earlier this month after the European Union suspended pre-membership talks because Serbia failed to hand over Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic to the Hague tribunal.

The party later said it would quit the coalition by October. 1 unless the EU talks were restarted, which would imply the arrest of Mladic, unless the EU softens its stance.

Dragan Sutanovac of the opposition Democrats, the pro-Western party of President Boris Tadic, told the Belgrade daily Press that Kostunica should resign, not because of Montenegro but because of failed promises to the electorate.

''He promised European integration, but (EU) talks have been suspended because the authorities did not extradite Mladic.'' The Democrats were the only ones who genuinely wanted early elections, and they should be held in late September, he said.

Sutanovac said the Democrats would support a government reshuffle in the wake of Montenegro's independence, but only if Kostunica accepted Tadic's 10-point plan for the country.

Kostunica is Tadic's main rival. The chances of him adopting the opposition leader's policies seemed negligible.

The defunct union's Council of Ministers and the Supreme Defence Council are to be wound up by the end of May by Serbia and Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, who supports Montenegro's independence and has already announced his resignation.

REUTERS SHR RK1926