Serbian government dissolved, election to come

By Ellie Tzortzi

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's coalition government, torn by division over the loss of Kosovo, was formally dissolved on Monday, opening the way for an early parliamentary election.

The decision was taken at a brief cabinet session following Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Saturday announcement that the government could not stay in office owing to disunity over the conflicting goals of defending Kosovo and joining the European Union.

"The government did not have a united and common policy any more," a statement said, "and this kept it from performing its basic constitutional function, to define and lead Serbia's politics."

President Boris Tadic must now disband parliament and set a date for the election, probably on May 11. It will be the most important election since voters ended the era of the late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

The vote will be a close race between the Democrats and the nationalist Radicals, the strongest party.

Kostunica, whose party lies a distant third, quit after tacitly accusing his coalition partners, the Democrats and the G17 Plus party, of giving up on Kosovo, the 90-percent ethnic Albanian province which seceded last month with Western backing.

Not all of the 27 EU members have recognized Kosovo, but Brussels is deploying a supervisory mission that will monitor the territory's progress as an independent state.

Tadic, also the head of the Democrats, said on Sunday that attempts to divide Serbs into patriots and traitors over Kosovo would backfire at the polls. A strong and stable Serbia would be in a better position to defend its interests, he added.