Serbia begins postelection talks

Serbia's nationalists brushed aside their pro-Western rivals' claim of victory in parliamentary elections and held talks Monday to see if they could muster support from other parties to form a government.

Sunday's vote left the Balkan nation sharply split, though President Boris Tadic portrayed his coalition's clear lead as a sign that Serbs back his efforts to bring the country into the European Union.

The showdown reflected deep divisions among Serbs torn over whether to join the EU — or to shift toward their traditional ally, Russia, and revert to their nationalist past.

Tadic proclaimed "a great day for Serbia" after projections by an independent monitoring group and partial results from the state electoral commission gave his Coalition for a European Serbia a 10 percentage-point lead over the ultranationalist Radical Party.

But he told supporters early Monday in central Belgrade: "You should celebrate, but I must go and negotiate."

"Those will be tough negotiations," Tadic said.