BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia has asked the World Bank for a loan, which could be as much as $400 million (254.84 million pounds), to safeguard its economy until the new government prepares a package of measures to combat the economic downturn, the country’s finance minister said on Monday.

The country’s finances have been in disarray since the International Monetary Fund froze its 1 billion euro loan deal with Serbia until after elections held in May and the creation of a new government, saying it was dissatisfied with the country’s inflated spending and debt.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The former spokesman of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic took power in Serbia on Friday, telling Europe and the Balkans to forget the past and not fear the return of a political alliance that once led the country to war with NATO.

After 12 hours of heated debate, lawmakers in the 250-seat Serbian parliament voted 142 to 72 to endorse Socialist Party leader Ivica Dacic as prime minister at the helm of a coalition with nationalists.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The wartime spokesman of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic was set to take power in Serbia on Friday, telling the Balkans to forget the past and not fear the return of a political alliance that once led the country to war with NATO.

In a parliament debate that dragged into the night, Ivica Dacic dismissed concerns in the West that Serbia might veer from the pro-European Union path set by reformers who ousted Milosevic 12 years ago and who now find themselves back in opposition.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s incoming prime minister promised on Thursday to speed up its bid to join the European Union with the West scrutinizing the return to power of a political alliance that once led a government at war with NATO.

The revival of the coalition of nationalists and socialists has raised concern in the West that the ex-Yugoslav republic might veer from the pro-EU path set by reformers who ousted Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The wartime spokesman of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was asked on Thursday to form a coalition government with a nationalist party, raising concerns among diplomats and investors about Belgrade’s bid for European Union membership.

Ivica Dacic, head of the Socialist party once led by Milosevic, said after being given the mandate to govern: “There will be no return to the 1990s,” the decade when the former Yugoslavia was ripped apart by war.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – The wartime spokesman of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was asked on Thursday to form a coalition government with a nationalist party, raising concerns aming diplomats and investors about Belgrade’s bid for European Union membership.

Ivica Dacic, head of the Socialist party once led by Milosevic, said after being given the mandate to govern: “There will be no return to the 1990s,” the decade when the former Yugoslavia was ripped apart by war.

PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) – More than 50 people were injured in clashes on Thursday when the authorities in Kosovo deported a group of visiting Serbs who accused the police of shooting at them, leaving one with life-threatening gunshot injuries.

The group of about 70 mostly young Serbs was travelling in two buses to Gazimestan, a religious and historic site close to the capital Pristina, when police turned them back, arguing they had become “very aggressive, drunk and were provoking both police and citizens”.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian Socialist leader Ivica Dacic received a mandate on Thursday to form a coalition government with President Tomislav Nikolic’s nationalist Progressive party, a move that may raise concerns about Belgrade’s bid for European Union membership.

“They have convinced me that they have a parliamentary majority,” Nikolic, a former ultra-nationalist who surprisingly beat liberal Boris Tadic in a presidential run-off vote on May 20, told reporters after handing Dacic the mandate.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia is close to forming a coalition government seven weeks after a parliamentary vote, local media said on Wednesday, reporting that three parties – including the nationalist Serbian Progressive party – had struck a deal to govern.

If confirmed, the deal is likely to raise fears about the Balkan country’s bid to join the European Union as EU officials are skeptical about how genuine the nationalists’ desire to join the bloc is and unsure whether they will push through the tough reforms which are a prerequisite of membership.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Talks on forming a pro-reform coalition government in Serbia looked on the verge of collapse on Tuesday, raising the prospect of nationalists taking power in the country which is a candidate for European Union membership.

Seven weeks after an inconclusive parliamentary election, the Democratic Party issued a statement late on Tuesday demanding that the Socialist-led bloc say whether its initial agreement to form a government still stands.