Pro-EU parties win Serbian election
Serbia's pro-European Union parties have won a "very convincing" election victory over nationalists.
Sunday's general election saw President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party and two smaller allies take 39 percent of the vote against 28.6 per cent for the nationalist Radicals.
The result gives Mr Tadic's coalition 103 seats in the Balkan country's 250-seat assembly, falling short of a governing majority.
Democrat Party defence minister Dragan Sutanovac said: "This is a great victory. It shows that Serbs want a European Serbia."
Most Western governments wanted victory for Mr Tadic after opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic threatened to put the issue of EU membership on ice and push for Serbia's claim on newly-independent Kosovo.
The Albanian majority in the former province declared independence with EU support in February.
The Democrats say EU accession is the only way to attract investors and raise living standards that suffered in the 1990s, when Serbia was isolated for its role in the Yugoslav wars.
They have tried to combine firm opposition to Kosovo's secession with offering a hand of friendship to the Western countries that recognised it.
With neither of the two main parties winning outright, outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of the nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia, and the Socialist Party of war leader Slobodan Milosevic are in key position to decide who will form the government.
Mr Kostunica has moved closer to the Radicals' position over Kosovo and is unlikely to renew his alliance with Tadic's Democrats, whom he accuses of selling out to the EU.
"It's very important that a government is formed quickly after the election so we can continue the policy of preserving the state's integrity," Kostunica said after casting his ballot.
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