"Failure of Brussels deal is in Serbia's interest"

Party leader and former Serbian PM Vojislav Kostunica hosted a reception in Belgrade, and commented on the recently initialed agreement between Belgrade and Pristina by saying that it was in Serbia's interest for the deal to fall through.

"Precisely during these great (holiday) days our government has moved to wholeheartedly hand over Kosovo to the fake and self-proclaimed state of Kosovo, and in doing that drag Serbia into a crisis the results of which are impossible to predict," he told reporters.

The current government, Koštunica further charged, was dismantling institutions of its own state in Kosovo. For this reason, he called on the citizens to engage in peaceful resistance.

"It is in our interest for the Brussels agreement to fail," Kostunica stressed, and added that the DSS warned against the initialing and signing of the deal, while the current phase was its implementation - "and it is in our interest that it is not implemented."

The DSS leader then said that Serbs from Kosovo also agreed on this point, and that his party would help them out. He noted that a protest rally was scheduled in Belgrade for May 10 at 12:44 CET - a symbolic reference to UN Security Resolution 1244.

Asked whether his party "did all it could to solve the Kosovo problem" while he served as prime minister, Kostunica said that negotiations lasted two years at the time, but that the Democrats (DS), along with other parties, had a majority in that government - "and were in favor of the EU."