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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Serbia's lawmakers will convene Saturday to vote into office a new pro-Western government and replace a right-wing parliament speaker whose election has prompted fears that the Balkan republic was returning to its nationalist past.
The hastily-called parliament session is expected to end weeks of political turmoil in Serbia, only two days before a May 14 deadline for key politicians to form a new government or face an early election this summer.
Late Friday, President Boris Tadic announced that three main pro-Western parties have reached a power-sharing agreement to form a pro-European government, and that he has named caretaker Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica as the premier designate.
The news was hailed by Western governments and Serbia's neighbors who were alarmed by the election this week of ultranationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic to the post of parliament speaker -- the No. 2 position in the country.
Kostunica said in a statement Saturday that the government will "bring most necessary stability to the society." The premier-designate also noted that existence of a government is crucial "when a decisive battle is being fought for Kosovo."
"Serbia may never be one millimeter smaller than it is today," he said referring to Belgrade's opposition to mounting prospects that the cherished Serbian province will be granted independence according to a Western-backed plan.
The Tadic-Kostunica deal also has triggered a sigh of relief among Serbs, worn out by the crisis and angry at their leaders' months-long inability to form the government, which brought the country on the verge of instability.
"Could It Have Been Quicker?" the Blic daily asked on its front-page on Saturday, illustrating the mood. "The Government Has Dawned," Vecernje Novosti daily wrote ironically.
A pro-Western government in Serbia is crucial for the troubled country's economic recovery, as well as international integration following years of isolation and wars under the late warmongering President Slobodan Milosevic.
The election of Milosevic's admirer Nikolic to the parliament speaker post this week prompted fears that the nationalists -- who took Serbia to four wars in the 1990s -- could return to power and push the nation into renewed isolation.
But Nikolic, who was elected with the backing of Kostunica's lawmakers, will be replaced as part of the Kostunica-Tadic deal, officials said. Nikolic himself told The Associated Press on Friday that he will resign, rather than be replaced.
U.S. and other international officials have warned Serbia that if Nikolic's Radical Party came to power in Serbia, it would seriously undermine relations with the West.
The Radicals used to back Milosevic's policies in the Balkans, while their own boss, Vojislav Seselj, is awaiting trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The Radicals also oppose the Western-backed U.N. plan to grant internationally supervised self-rule to Kosovo.
The United States and EU countries support independence for Kosovo, rejecting Serbia's offer of a broad autonomy for the ethnic Albanian-dominated region.
Russia, however, has sided with Serbia in the dispute, leading to fears of a standoff in the U.N. Security Council. Moscow reiterated its opposition to the plan Saturday, rejecting a U.S.-backed draft resolution on Kosovo.
Also Saturday, the EU presidency welcomed the Kostunica-Tadic deal in a statement, urging the future government to "initiate the relevant reforms so that the (pre-entry) negotiations with Serbia ... which have been on hold for the past year, can be resumed."
The talks were suspended because of Belgrade's failure to extradite Gen. Ratko Mladic, a wartime commander sought by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague for atrocities during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
The hastily-called parliament session is expected to end weeks of political turmoil in Serbia, only two days before a May 14 deadline for key politicians to form a new government or face an early election this summer.
Late Friday, President Boris Tadic announced that three main pro-Western parties have reached a power-sharing agreement to form a pro-European government, and that he has named caretaker Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica as the premier designate.
The news was hailed by Western governments and Serbia's neighbors who were alarmed by the election this week of ultranationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic to the post of parliament speaker -- the No. 2 position in the country.
Kostunica said in a statement Saturday that the government will "bring most necessary stability to the society." The premier-designate also noted that existence of a government is crucial "when a decisive battle is being fought for Kosovo."
"Serbia may never be one millimeter smaller than it is today," he said referring to Belgrade's opposition to mounting prospects that the cherished Serbian province will be granted independence according to a Western-backed plan.
The Tadic-Kostunica deal also has triggered a sigh of relief among Serbs, worn out by the crisis and angry at their leaders' months-long inability to form the government, which brought the country on the verge of instability.
"Could It Have Been Quicker?" the Blic daily asked on its front-page on Saturday, illustrating the mood. "The Government Has Dawned," Vecernje Novosti daily wrote ironically.
A pro-Western government in Serbia is crucial for the troubled country's economic recovery, as well as international integration following years of isolation and wars under the late warmongering President Slobodan Milosevic.
The election of Milosevic's admirer Nikolic to the parliament speaker post this week prompted fears that the nationalists -- who took Serbia to four wars in the 1990s -- could return to power and push the nation into renewed isolation.
But Nikolic, who was elected with the backing of Kostunica's lawmakers, will be replaced as part of the Kostunica-Tadic deal, officials said. Nikolic himself told The Associated Press on Friday that he will resign, rather than be replaced.
U.S. and other international officials have warned Serbia that if Nikolic's Radical Party came to power in Serbia, it would seriously undermine relations with the West.
The Radicals used to back Milosevic's policies in the Balkans, while their own boss, Vojislav Seselj, is awaiting trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The Radicals also oppose the Western-backed U.N. plan to grant internationally supervised self-rule to Kosovo.
The United States and EU countries support independence for Kosovo, rejecting Serbia's offer of a broad autonomy for the ethnic Albanian-dominated region.
Russia, however, has sided with Serbia in the dispute, leading to fears of a standoff in the U.N. Security Council. Moscow reiterated its opposition to the plan Saturday, rejecting a U.S.-backed draft resolution on Kosovo.
Also Saturday, the EU presidency welcomed the Kostunica-Tadic deal in a statement, urging the future government to "initiate the relevant reforms so that the (pre-entry) negotiations with Serbia ... which have been on hold for the past year, can be resumed."
The talks were suspended because of Belgrade's failure to extradite Gen. Ratko Mladic, a wartime commander sought by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague for atrocities during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
