Serb opposition presidential candidate attacks Milosevic

One of the Serb opposition candidates in next month's Yugoslav presidential elections, Vojislav Kostunica, has accused President Milosevic of leading the country to ruin.

Speaking to journalists in the capital, Belgrade, Mr Kostunica said Mr Milosevic's Socialist party had presided over ten years of continually deteriorating economic and social conditions, including a complete isolation from the rest of the world.

Mr Kostunica represents a fifteen-party opposition alliance.

A poll conducted this month by the Belgrade-based Institute of Social Sciences in Serbia showed Mr Kostunica leading with thirty-five per cent support ahead of Mr Milosevic's twenty-three per cent. The largest opposition party in Yugoslavia, the Serbian Renewal Movement, has chosen the mayor of Belgrade, Vojislav Mihajlovic, as its candidate in the elections scheduled for September twenty-four.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service