BERLIN, May 9 (UPI) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Serbia's outgoing prime minister to try to form a pro-European coalition government within a constitutional deadline.
Ulrich Wilhem, a spokesman for the German government, told reporters Wednesday in Berlin that Merkel "seriously warned" Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica in a telephone conversation to form a democratic government by Monday, the Serbian news agency Beta reported.
Merkel, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, expressed concern over the election Tuesday of Serbian ultranationalist Tomislav Nikolic as the speaker of Serbia's Parliament.
Nikolic was elected with support from Kostunica's conservative Democratic Party of Serbia and the Socialist party of the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.
On his election, Nikolic opposed Serbia's efforts to join NATO and the European Union. He instead advocated close ties with Russia, reiterating his wishes to turn Serbia into a Russian province.
Nikolic is deputy of the Serbian Radical Party, whose president, Vojislav Seselj, is standing trial before the U.N. tribunal in The Hague on war crimes charges in the 1991-95 Yugoslav ethnic wars.
Serbian pro-Western leaders in Belgrade have expressed concern Kostunica and Nikolic could form a coalition government.
