Presidency

Bosnia's Central Election Commission, the CIK, has been accused of perpetuating discrimination in the country after it ruled that Svetozar Pudaric - an independent candidate for the election in October - could not stand as he is Bosnian Serb living in the wrong entity - the mainly Bosniak and Croatian Federation entity.

Bosnian Presidency member Dragan Covic, who represents Croats in this collective body, says he has not been invited to attend the Operation Storm parade.

Bosnian Presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic has asked for Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic's visit to Sarajevo, planned for Tuesday, to be postponed.

SARAJEVO - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Monday that relations between Belgrade and Sarajevo were good and he expected them to continue improving, adding that it was clear that relations were getting better throughout the region.

Based on around 95 per cent of votes counted, the three members of Bosnia's State Presidency will Bakir Izetbegovic - for the Bosniaks, Dragan Covic - for the Croats, and Mladen Ivanic - for the Serbs.

Izetbegovic, the existing Bosniak member, standing for the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, SDA, won about 228,000 votes, some 40,000 more than his main rival, Fahrudin Radoncic.

BELGRADE - Serbian Progressive Party leader Aleksandar Vucic will present the programme of the new Serbian government to the party Presidency on Saturday, with the first inter-party consultations on the ministerial team to follow from Monday, the Vecernje novosti daily reported on Friday.

BELGRADE - Nebojsa Radmanovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) Presidency member and senior official of the ruling Party of Independent Social Democrats in Republika Srpska (RS), said that the relations between BiH and Serbia are very important and thus need to be improved on a broad basis.

URS party "did not siphon off money from export agency"

BELGRADE -- While in the government, the URS "did not siphon off money from the Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) through party members."

This is what United Regions of Serbia (URS) Presidency member Miroslav Čučković said during a B92 TV talk show late on Sunday.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - United Regions of Serbia (URS) Presidency member Danijela Vujicic said on Thursday that the Brussels Agreement will not be implemented to the full extent if Pristina continues to insist on the statehood of Kosovo.

"Serbia always stood with Russia, must do so now"

BELGRADE -- Vice-President of the opposition DSS party Nenad Popović has said that Serbia "must in no way take part in EU's policy against Russia."

Popović made the statement on Friday after a meeting with Valery Ryazanskiy, a member of the Presidency of the General Council of the ruling United Russia party.