New Serb coalition to replace hardline speaker

BELGRADE, May 12 (Reuters) The European Union urged Serbia today to press ahead with reforms as a newly created coalition prepared to replace parliament speaker Tomislav Nikolic, a hardline nationalist reviled by the West.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a moderate nationalist, and pro-Western President Boris Tadic agreed a coalition yesterday after 16 weeks of on-off negotiations, to the relief of Western governments who had feared a nationalist resurgence.

The coalition looks set to jump-start stalled EU accession talks, but Kostunica said it would continue to fight against a draft United Nations Security Council resolution expected to grant breakaway province Kosovo independence by summer.

His party had backed Nikolic for speaker earlier in the week, a move seen as putting pressure on Tadic to agree to join a government on the prime minister's terms.

Washington and Brussels had said Nikolic's election was return to the dark days of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.

A member of the ultranationalist Radical Party, Nikolic called a chamber session for tonight, saying he wanted to hear ''what they have against me.'' ''There's a majority which demands a new parliament speaker, and a new speaker will be elected,'' he said.

EU URGES REFORM By forming a government, the two sides avoided a power vacuum during UN discussions on Kosovo's fate and snap polls, which would have been called if they had not agreed by May 14.

A statement from the German EU presidency expressed hope Serbia's ''future government will initiate relevant reforms so that negotiations on a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and Serbia ... can be resumed''.

Brussels froze talks with Serbia a year ago over Belgrade's failure to deliver war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The EU says he is in Serbia, hiding with the help of hardliners in the army and police. Talks may restart if Belgrade shows signs of progress, Brussels says, but Mladic must be behind bars for an agreement to be signed.

The new coalition has said The Hague is a top priority.

''There can be no normal civilised life unless we continue getting closer to the EU,'' said Dusan Petrovic, a senior official of Tadic's Democratic Party.

Also today, Belgrade's ally Russia said it could not accept some parts of the draft UN resolution expected to effectively amputate Kosovo -- which Serbs revere as their cultural heartland -- from the rest of the country.

Serbia rejects independence for Kosovo, run by the UN since NATO bombed in 1999 to oust Serb forces who had killed 10,000 civilians in a two-year war with guerrillas and Kostunica said the new government would fight to keep it.

''It was particularly important to form a government at this moment so the country has a legitimate government when a decisive battle is being waged in the Security Council for preserving the unity of the state,'' Kostunica said today.

He said the coalition members had ''put the interests of the state, nation and citizens above their own party interests.'' REUTERS SKB MIR RAI2027