EU hopes offer of visa-free travel will sway Serbians

SERBIA:SEVENTEEN EUROPEAN states have offered visa-free travel to Serbians just days before they vote in a general election, which opinion polls suggest will be won by pro-Russian ultra-nationalists who want to freeze ties with Brussels.

The European Union hopes the prospect of easier travel will encourage Serbs to support the Democrats, led by liberal president Boris Tadic, which the latest polls show trailing the far-right Radical party ahead of Sunday's ballot.

Sixteen EU members, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, joined non-member Norway - but not Ireland - yesterday in offering "free visas to all individual applicants for whom that is a possibility", as part of a drive to ultimately offer unrestricted travel to all Serbia's 10 million people once it has fulfilled various security and technical requirements.

It comes a week after Brussels signed a pre-accession pact with Mr Tadic's allies in a bid to boost pro-EU forces in the election, which is expected to move Serbia towards EU membership or towards Russia, which backed Belgrade's bid to hold on to Kosovo.

Mr Tadic opposes Kosovo's independence but still advocates membership of the EU, while the Radicals and allies of current prime minister Vojislav Kostunica vow never to join the bloc until it disowns the region's sovereignty.

A survey by a leading polling agency, published in yesterday's Politikanewspaper, gave the Radicals 33.2 per cent of support and the Democrats 31.5 per cent. Mr Kostunica's party had 13.8 per cent, while a smaller liberal party allied to Mr Tadic and the Socialists, once led by autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, both had 7.5 per cent.

Mr Kostunica, used to the role of political kingmaker, has not committed himself to supporting the Radicals, who have offered to form a coalition with him.

But his increasingly nationalist tone in recent months has opened up a huge divide between his party and that of former ally Mr Tadic, and they have also clashed over Mr Kostunica's backing for a controversial deal that would see Serbia's state oil firm sold to a Kremlin-controlled company for what many analysts regard as a knockdown price.

Mr Kostunica and Radicals leader Tomislav Nikolic say Serbia should strengthen ties with Moscow to prevent US and EU domination of Serbia and the Balkans, a policy that chimes with millions of Serbs who are outraged by Kosovo's western-backed independence move.