Serbian church abandons Milosevic

Vojislav Kostunica has received important church support

The Serbian Orthodox Church has recognised the opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica as the winner in the Yugoslav presidential elections.

After a meeting of the Holy Synod headed by Patriarch Pavle, the highly influential church said that when he took charge of the state, Mr Kostunica should do so "in a peaceful and dignified way".

Patriarch Pavle called for peaceful transition

Yugoslavia's state electoral body has ruled that Mr Kostunica and President Slobodan Milosevic must hold a second round of elections on 8 October because neither had won an outright majority in the first poll on Sunday.

Opposition to Mr Milosevic's 13-rule is growing - some 200,000 people rallied in central Belgrade on Wednesday night calling for him to step down.

Mr Kostunica ruled out taking part in a second round of voting.

"If we agreed to haggle, we would admit that the will of one man, Slobodan Milosevic, is stronger than the will of the whole people," he told the crowds.

However Mr Milosevic on Thursday appeared to be pressing ahead with plans for a second round of voting - ignoring appeals at home and abroad for him to accept defeat and step down.

Mr Milosevic is pressing ahead with second-round preparations

Official news agency Tanjug said Mr Milosevic had set out "immediate tasks" for his Socialist Party (SPS) in regard to the presidential run-off.

The SPS and a coalition of allies claimed to have won an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections, which were held alongside the presidential vote.

An SPS statement said the result of the vote, due to be released by the election commission late on Thursday, "enables" the party in coalition with the neo-communist Yugoslav Left and the Montenegrin Socialist People's party, to form a federal government.

Second round

Mr Kostunica and the opposition, backed by Western governments, say he won outright in the first round, and have called on Mr Milosevic to accept defeat and step down.

Official results

Vojislav Kostunica: 48.96% or 2,474,392 votes

Slobodan Milosevic: 38.62% or 1,951,761 votes

7,200,000 registered voters

69.7% of voters cast ballots

Source: Federal Election Commission

Yugoslavia's opposition is calling for a general strike and for extended street protests to force the recognition of Mr Kostunica's victory.

The opposition denounced the electoral commission's demand for a second run-off round as "a joke".

"We will call on the people to defend their rights, to put up general resistance and boycott the system, to come out on the streets," said Zoran Djindjic, leader of one of the coalition of opposition parties.

"We call for everything to come to a halt until Milosevic goes," he added.

Mr Djindjic called for children to boycott schools but in Belgrade shops were open early on Thursday with little apparent disruption to the daily routine.