US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Monday urged Yugoslavia's opposition groups to drop threats to boycott September elections and unite to defeat President Slobodan Milosevic.
"I do think that it is very important for the democratic opposition in Serbia to unite and present a single slate and to participate in the elections," she said.
"They have an opportunity to do that and they need to unite on a single candidate," Albright told reporters a joint press conference with Italy's Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini.
She later made the same point to Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, a key opponent of Milosevic and leader of Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav federation and a key opponent of Milosevic, in a meeting at a Rome hotel, US officials said.
Albright's talks with Djukanovic were suspended after about an hour so she could keep an appointment to confer with Vatican foreign secretary Jean-Louis Tauran on the Middle East peace process, but were to continue later in the afternoon, they said.
Dini, speaking at the press conference after the two officials met here, said: "There is concern on our part about Slobodan Milosevic's changes to the constitution."
Milosevic, indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, recently tightened his grip on power with the constitutional change, which would allow a president to be elected by a majority in a popular vote, regardless of turnout, and to stand for more than one four-year term.
Djukanovic and Serbian opposition figure Vuk Draskovic have issued calls for a boycott of the September 24 poll, the first in the history of the Yugoslav federation to be contested by direct popular vote.
"The Italian government's view is to encourage President Djukanovic of Montenegro not to boycott the elections," said Dinni - ROME (AFP)
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