FACTBOX: Profile of Serbia, torn between East and West

(Reuters) - Pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic faces nationalist challenger Tomislav Nikolic on Sunday in an election that will decide Serbia's attitude to the West after the imminent loss of breakaway Kosovo province.

Here is a profile of the country.

HISTORY

The first Serbian state emerged in the 10th century, fell to the Ottoman Empire in the early 15th century and achieved independence from the Turks in 1878. Land under Belgrade's control grew after World War One with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In World War Two, anti-fascist forces led by Croat commander Josip Broz Tito emerged victorious and proclaimed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with Serbs the lead nation thanks to its larger population. After Tito died in 1980, divisions grew with the rise of Serb nationalist Slobodan Milosevic. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991, Macedonia in September and Bosnia in March 1992. Milosevic opposed Croatia and Bosnia's secession and backed Serb minorities there with arms and money. He revoked the autonomy of Kosovo province, provoking a rebellion by its Albanian majority. A NATO bombing campaign in 1999 expelled Serb forces accused of atrocities against civilians and the United Nations took control of Kosovo. Milosevic was overthrown in October 2000. Reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, appointed in 2001, was assassinated in 2003. Montenegro voted in 2006 to leave its union with Serbia, obliging Serbia to go solo for the first time since 1918.

LAND & PEOPLE

Landlocked Serbia lies at the heart of the Balkans, bordering Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania Bulgaria and Macedonia. The 2002 census, which excludes United Nations-run Kosovo, puts the population at some 7.5 million people, with Serbs an 83 percent majority among some two dozen ethnic groups such as Hungarians, Roma, Albanians, Muslims and Slovaks. The dominant religion is Orthodox Christianity and the official language is Serbian in the Cyrillic or Latin alphabets, with Hungarian spoken mainly in the northern Vojvodina province.

POLITICS

The coalition of President Tadic and nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica is fragile and divided. A major issue is the fate of Kosovo: the province's Albanian majority is expected to declare independence in the next few weeks with Western backing. There is broad support for joining the European Union, but half the public feel the EU's stance on Kosovo should be taken into account, and also favor closer ties with Moscow.