Serbs vote in tight general election

BELGRADE, Jan 21 (Reuters) Serbs went to the polls today in a national election expected to be a tight race between ultranationalists and pro-Western reformers.

The country is still recovering from a decade of sanctions and isolation under autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, who was ousted in 2000 and died in 2006 while on trial for war crimes.

The West says Serbia must now decide if it wants to reclaim its place in Europe.

Opinion polls show the race is too close to call. The ultra-nationalist Radical Party and the pro-Western Democratic Party are polling about 30 percent, not enough to form a government alone.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia is in third place and seen as the kingmaker, equally likely to support either of its rivals in forming a government.

About 6.6 million Serbs are entitled to vote. Polling stations close 8 pm (0030IST) and the first projections of the result are expected before midnight.

''The Radicals are the best party, I expect them to win,'' said 35-year old Zarko Nikolic, an early morning voter in a Belgrade suburb. He said he lost his job in a state firm when it got privatised and trusted Radicals to make things better.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES The new government faces having to implement more painful economic changes and deal with two major international issues: the future of the breakaway Kosovo province and the handover of top war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic.

The United Nations is expected to rule this year on the fate of Kosovo. The West favours granting independence to its majority ethnic Albanians as they have demanded since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of killing civilians while fighting an insurgency.

The major parties say they will not accept the loss of Kosovo, but the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic -- the party favoured by the West -- has come closest to telling Serbs that it might be inevitable.

Brussels froze talks on closer ties last year and said it would restart them only when Mladic, accused of genocide, was on trial.

Some Western officials accuse hardline nationalists in Serbia's military and police of helping Mladic to hide and evade trial by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The Democratic Party says arresting him is a top priority. The Radicals, who consider Mladic a hero, are unlikely to deliver him.

''We sincerely hope the voters will turn out in large numbers and choose a European future for their country,'' said British ambassador Steven Wordsworth.

German ambassador Andreas Zobel said the elections ''are of an extraordinary importance because they will determine the direction in which Serbia wishes to develop''.

Reuters AB GC1241