Talk turns ugly as Serb parties vie for power

Serbia's President Boris Tadic is seen on a ripped election campaign poster in Belgrade, May 13, 2008.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The nationalist Serb Radical Party warned President Boris Tadic on Friday to keep his party's "Mafioso, thieving, criminal" hands off its talks to form a coalition with Socialists.

Tadic's Democratic Party said Serbia did not vote in last Sunday's parliamentary election for "sickening post-election mathematics with which to betray the will of the citizens and dramatically change the strategic course of the country".

The insults flew as leaders of two diametrically opposed camps wrestled to form a coalition with a governing majority in the 250-seat national assembly after an inconclusive election which put the Democrats on top but well short of a majority.

EU officials had hoped to see Serbia quickly form a pro-European government to bury the threat that a key state in the Balkans would turn openly hostile.

The nationalist parties want Serbia to shun the European Union because a majority of EU states recognize the independence of Kosovo, the Serb province whose 90 percent Albanian majority declared independence three months ago after nearly nine years under U.N. administration.

Tadic's pro-EU bloc says Serbia must pursue EU membership, a goal favored by most Serbs which they say does not imply accepting the loss of Kosovo. A nationalist-socialist government, says Tadic, would be a "short trip on the Titanic".

DISCREDITED, NOW COURTED

Both blocs are battling for support from the Socialist Party of the late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, which shrank dramatically after he lost power in 2000 and became widely discredited.

But the Socialists made gains in Sunday's election and will have 20 crucial seats in the next parliament. So far they have done most of their coalition talking with the Radicals and nationalist DSS-NS of former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica.

Analysts say the Socialists and small allied parties are split on which way to jump.

Tadic's party said Kostunica had deceived the electorate by failing to tell voters he would join forces with the Radicals to "manipulate and betray the electoral will of the people.

"It is highly irresponsible for Vojislav Kostunica to let bitterness and anger be his motivation for turning to a coalition with Seselj, leading the people of Serbia towards damaging Radical policy and the hell of the 1990s."

Radicals president Vojislav Seselj is on trial at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague on charges of war crimes including incitement to hatred and violence during the 1990s wars with Croatia and Bosnia.

The Radicals warned Tadic's party not to try to block the will of the people by force.

"I call on them not to incite chaos in the country, since their threats frighten no-one. We know they are dangerous people, but we're not scared and we will succeed," Radicals secretary-general Aleksandar Vucic told a news conference.

(Additional reporting by Matt Robinson and Gordana Filipovic. Editing by Janet Lawrence)