Montenegrin PM says Serbia hindering recognition

PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro, May 26 (Reuters) Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic accused the Serbian government today of encouraging his ethnic Serb opponents in Montenegro to reject a referendum result backing independence.

''The Montenegrin opposition confirms it is unable to accept the will of the people,'' Djukanovic told Montenegro daily Pobjeda.

''Even sadder is that the opposition is acting directly on the orders of Belgrade. Everything that happens in Montenegro is directly ordered by the Serbian government,'' he said, adding that such interference was bad for democracy in the Balkans.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has said he will accept the result in favour of independence but only when final results are announced, possibly later today.

Serbian President Boris Tadic, Kostunica's political opponent, has already recognised the referendum result and was scheduled to visit Montenegro tomorrow to meet Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic.

Montenegro's anti-independence campaign is dominated by the mainly ethnic Serb opposition party, the Socialist Peoples Party of Predrag Bulatovic.

It has challenged the result in nearly 190 of 1,120 polling stations in the referendum held on May 21, in which 55.5 per cent of voters opted to end the union with Serbia, according to preliminary results.

The ''Yes'' vote was just above the 55 percent minimum required by the European Union to recognise the result. If 2,000 to 3,000 votes were declared invalid it could be enough to change the outcome.

Bulatovic's campaign says, however, that it considers the referendum commission to have the final word. If the commission rejects the complaints, the Bulatovic camp will not appeal to the constitutional court because it is controlled by Djukanovic.

The commission headed by EU-appointed Frantisek Lipka comprises an equal number of members from both blocs.

''A full stop has to be put to this story by the EU, not by Milo Djukanovic and his so-called constitutional court,'' said Predrag Popovic of the anti-independence campaign.

The referendum commission said today it had already rejected seven complaints as unfounded and expected to rule on the others by this evening.

In an interview with Reuters yesterday, the US ambassador in Belgrade, Michael Polt, urged Serbia to quickly establish a constructive new relationship with Montenegro following the independence vote.

REUTERS SHR RAI1903