(22 Jan 2007)
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Kosovo's deputy prime minister Lutfi Haziri walking past camera
2. SOUNDBITE (English), Lutfi Haziri, Kosovan deputy prime minister:
"As everybody believed in Serbia will win democratic forces. Today we have the results that Radicals won elections. But, fortunately they will not be able to build a government. It will be the same. The minority government will come on as a democratic forces, and I do believe they will run the institutions and they will be able to continue in the next future, including the process of status of Kosovo."
3. Cutaway of Haziri's hands during the interview
4. SOUNDBITE (English), Lutfi Haziri, Kosovan deputy prime minister:
"Kosovo's tendency to cooperate with government of Serbia is there. Our experience (of cooperation) until now in technical level was really less because of Belgrade's position. All times they continue in the same principles. Before it was no progress because of status and they became obstacles in the first stage to the Kosovo Serbs and later on with the international community. Now they are on the delay policy and they don't want any kind of cooperation. They become the main obstacles to all of us here. And unfortunately, we are looking in the future in the same way. We are willing, we want to continue this cooperation, but it's not to the Kosovo's side. It's for Serbia to decide and we invite them for cooperation, of course."
5. Various of Pristina at night
STORYLINE:
Kosovo's deputy prime minister Lutfi Haziri said on Sunday that he still believed that the democratic forces in Serbia would come together to form a government despite the high number of votes for the Radical Party.
''Today we have the results that Radicals won elections. But, fortunately they will not be able to build a government. It will be the same. The minority government will come on as a democratic forces, and I do believe they will run the institutions and they will be able to continue in the next future, including the process of status of Kosovo," Haziri told Associated Press Television.
The unofficial results suggested that the ultranationalist Radical Party had won most votes in Serbia's parliamentary election, but if the pro-democratic groups were able to settle their differences and combine, they would together have enough votes to form a new government.
The Radicals, who ruled Serbia with Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s, gathered about 29 percent of the vote, followed by the pro-Western Democratic Party with 23 percent and the ruling centre-right Popular Coalition with 17 percent, said CESID, an independent polling group, citing its own vote count at Serbian polling stations.
The state electoral commission released similar results, but with a smaller percentage of the vote counted.
One of the major challenges facing the next parliament and government is the dispute over Kosovo - most Serbs remain strongly opposed to losing the province.
Haziri said Kosovo's government was willing to cooperate with the new Serbian government, especially on the issue of Kosovo's status.
"We want to continue this cooperation, but it's not for Kosovo's side. It's for Serbia to decide and we invite them for cooperation, of course," Haziri said.
Kosovo has been an international protectorate since the 1998-99 war between Milosevic's troops and separatist
ethnic Albanians.
In the time since the war there has been little progress on defining its status permanently.
U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari is expected to present a proposal for Kosovo's future to diplomats on Friday which many believe will include some sort of conditional independence.
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