President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro said after meeting the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, yesterday that a planned boycott of Yugoslav elections by the state's ruling parties was not yet decided.
The pro-Western parties had said they would not take part in any ballot organised by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and would encourage their supporters not to vote in September 24th presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections.
But a senior US official said Ms Albright would ask Mr Djukanovic to think carefully about boycotting the poll, in which the West would like to see a strong opposition challenge.
"This decision will be taken by the legitimate bodies of the parties which form the Montenegrin governing coalition and after taking that decision, we will inform the public," Mr Djukanovic said after meeting Ms Albright.
The ruling parties in Montenegro, the only republic not to split with Serbia in the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, say the polls are illegitimate because Mr Milosevic changed the constitution without consulting them. "What I can say is that we will not put up with the constitutional violence he is trying to use against Montenegro," Mr Djukanovic said.
Fearing another Balkan conflict over Montenegro, a senior US State Department official said Mr Djukanovic expected provocation from Belgrade-controlled security services in the coming weeks.