Tough talks loom after Serb polls


Mr Tadic was narrowly re-elected as president earlier this year



Results from Serbia's elections point to a triumph for President Boris Tadic's pro-European Union bloc.
Mr Tadic claimed victory with his bloc set to win nearly 40% of the vote but he may need the support of at least one nationalist party for a majority.
The European Union has welcomed what it called a clear victory for pro-European forces in the parliamentary elections.
The nationalist Radical Party though insists that it could still head a coalition forming the next government.
Ultra-nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic said he would have talks with parties which were close ideologically.
Formation of the new government could take up to three months analysts warn.
Kosovo
In a victory speech President Tadic said the Serbian people had in effect given their approval to the country's future membership of the EU with whom a long-delayed agreement was signed just before the election.
"The citizens of Serbia have undoubtedly confirmed a clear European path" he said adding: "It is necessary to form a government as soon as possible".
PROJECTED ELECTION RESULTS
Tadic bloc: 38.7% 103 seats
Radicals: 29.1% 77 seats
Kostunica bloc: 11.3% 30 seats
Socialist bloc: 7.9% 20 seats
Liberal Democrats: 5.2% 13 seats
Ethnic minorities: 2.3% seven seats
Total seats: 250. Parties forming a coalition need to have at least 126 between them
Source: independent monitoring group the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy



But he also vowed that a new government led by his Democratic Party would not recognise Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo as an independent state.
Mr Tadic faces the challenge of finding stable partners for his already complex three-party coalition without making too many political concessions the BBC's Ivana Miloradovic reports.
Even with the support of Hungarian Muslim and Albanian minority parties and the small Liberal Democrats - the only party ready to recognise the independence of Kosovo - his coalition falls short of the necessary majority.
The previous government fell over the issue of how to react when most EU countries recognised the independence of Kosovo.
Coalition
Mr Nikolic's Radical Party won 29% of the vote according to an independent projection. The official count has yet to be completed.
The Radicals' leader said he planned to meet both the Democratic Party of Serbia of outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and the Socialists - the party of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
The Radicals have not given up hope of forming a government



Theoretically the three parties could form a coalition with a wafer-thin majority in parliament.
Either the three parties would form a coalition Mr Nikolic said or Serbia would "not have a government at all and [would] have to go to new elections".
Mr Kostunica said after the election that he was open to talks with the Radicals.
"It's too early to say anything specific but I hope that we will be one of the main players in the formation of the new government" he added.
Parties have a legal deadline of three months to reach agreement.
International isolation
Ironically the aaa player that could make or break any future coalition seems to be the Socialists.



The party responsible for the country's international isolation under Milosevic has reinvented itself as an advocate of social justice and attracts many young often poor or unemployed voters.
Mr Kostunica's coalition would be a less desirable partner for the pro-EU bloc and the political cost of attracting it back into a new government could prove to be too high.
A statement from the EU's Slovenian presidency welcomed a "clear victory" for pro-European forces and said it hoped they would quickly form a government
Tadic supporters have been celebrating in Belgrade with fireworks.
Cars decked with party and EU symbols blew their horns as they circled the city centre.
Serbs in Kosovo also voted both in the general election and in council elections in defiance of the ethnic Albanian government and international authorities. Some 300 polling stations opened in areas with a sizeable Serb population and the vote passed off peaceaaaay. However even before the polls closed the United Nations mission issued a statement condemning the council elections as illegal and saying the results would not be recognised.