Servië kiest met Tadic voor weg naar de EU (en)
Serbia has taken a turn toward future EU integration after narrowly electing the moderate Boris Tadic over the radical Tomislav Nikolic in weekend presidential elections.
Mr Tadic won 50.5 percent of the vote against Mr Nikolic on 47.9 percent, Serbian news agency Tanjug reported late on Sunday (3 January) night.
The result means Belgrade is now more likely not to turn its back on the EU regardless of what happens with Kosovo's independence and to cooperate with The Hague's war crimes investigations as it strives to join the EU.
"I congratulate all the citizens of Serbia on our being a European democracy. We have shown to many EU member countries the democratic potential of this country," Mr Tadic said, AFP reports.
The EU, which had hoped Mr Tadic would win, congratulated him on his victory on Sunday evening.
"The outcome of the Serbian presidential elections should also be understood as the reflection of the wishes and resolve of democratic forces to further Serbia on its path towards membership of the European Union", the Slovenian presidency of the EU said in a statement.
The EU and Serbia are due on 7 February to sign a political deal on closer trade relations and relaxed visa requirements that points toward a full pre enlargement "association" agreement later on.
Mr Tadic opposes Kosovo independence but is open to a new EU mission in the province and has pledged to work with the largely pro-independence Brussels and Washington to solve the problem.
"We are sending a message to our Serbs in Kosovo that we will never let them down. We wish no one evil, we want peace, but we demand that Serbia must be respected," the re-elected president told his supporters after the announcement of the results, B92.net reports.
Mr Nikolic had aligned his Radical Party with Moscow, which firmly opposes Kosovo secession, and ran a nationalistic campaign evocative of the 1990s Balkan war years.
A 25,000-strong pro-Nikolic rally on Sunday sang songs celebrating the fugitive Radovan Karadzic, wanted by the Hague on charges of killing 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995.
The narrow Tadic win is representative of the importance the fate of the breakaway province of Kosovo - under UN governance since 1999 - plays for most Serbians, who are reluctant to let it go.
Kosovo had figured prominently in the pre-electoral campaign.
The subject also reflects other divisions in Serb society, with many Serbians seeing economic and political partnership with old Slavic ally Russia as an alternative to the EU option.
In January, Belgrade sold control of national gas firm, Serbia Gas, to Russia's Gazprom, and is due to sell its oil provider, Serbia's Petroleum Industry, by the end of 2008, giving Moscow a big stake in the country's future.