Servië kiest voor behoud van Kosovo ondanks VN-besprekingen (en)

Serbia has voted in a new constitution claiming that Kosovo is an "inalienable" part of its territory in the teeth of international warnings not to prejudge status talks and amid allegations of electoral fraud.

Independent pollsters CESID say 53.5 percent of the 6.6 million eligible Serbians voted on Saturday and Sunday, with 96 percent of voters backing the charter, giving a national result of 51.6 percent in favour.

"This is a great moment for Serbia," prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said, the BBC reports. "By defending Kosovo, we are defending something more than our interests, more than the issue of stability in the region. We are defending international law."

"I expect new elections after this referendum," president Boris Tadic added. "I expect after those elections to see a very strong democratic majority and a democratic government which is going to lead Serbia to the European Union."

On top of the Kosovo claim in the preamble, the 206 article-strong text also contains pro-EU chapters on ending the death penalty, banning human cloning and safeguarding minority rights.

The 100,000 Serb ethnic minority in Kosovo began celebrating with chants of "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia" in the streets of Kosovska Mitrovica on Sunday night as NATO peacekeepers looked on, AP writes.

But the 1 million plus ethnic-Albanian population in Kosovo boycotted the referendum, as they have done every Serb election since 1990, when Slobodan Milosevic's previous constitution stripped the region of autonomy.

Kosovo has been run by the UN since 1999, when NATO intervened to stop a Serb crackdown against the ethnic-Albanian population, with the UN currently locked in negotiations on the region's future status.

'Do not prejudge talks'

Ethnic-Albanian Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku as well as US, EU and UN diplomats said before the referendum that Serbia should not try to prejudge the results of the delicate talks.

"This is an issue which has to be clarified with the UN security council," a spokeswoman for EU top diplomat Javier Solana had said. "Neither party is going to unilaterally decide this," the White House spokesman had added.

The issue also has wider international implications, with UN security council member Russia saying an independent Kosovo should form a "universal precedent" for separatist entities in Moldova and South Caucasus.

UN security council member China is also wary of knock-on effects for Taiwan and Tibet, UK daily The Times reports, while separatist political parties in Catalonia and Northern Cyprus have also shown an interest in EU-led Balkan nation-building in recent months.

Meanwhile, the EU is showing growing sensitivity to the internal political situation in Serbia, hinting that Kosovo's final status may be put off until after Serb elections for fear of boosting votes for radical Serb nationalists led by Vojislav Seselj.

'Massive fraud' alleged

The referendum itself has been questioned by Serbia's opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which accused Belgrade of "massive fraud" in efforts to scrape past the 50% turnout mark needed to give the vote legitimacy.

"The magic figure of 3.32 million was passed at 19:00 [local time on Sunday]," Zoran Lucic of CESID told Reuters, with a huge surge in turnout recorded just in the last hour before booths closed.