The pro-Western Montenegrin government yesterday adopted a plan to redefine radically its partnership with Serbia in a renamed Yugoslav federation, Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic said.
"The government of Montenegro adopted today a platform on new relations between Montenegro and Serbia," he told reporters in Podgorica, the republic's capital.
The programme calls for Montenegro, which is dominated by Serbia in the current Yugoslav federation, to have its own defence minister, foreign policy and convertible currency. It proposes that the new Yugoslav federation should be called the Commonwealth of States of Montenegro and Serbia.
The programme was adopted at the end of a four-hour session, including a two-hour break during which representatives of the People's Party, a junior partner in the ruling coalition, left to consult advisers.
The party had complained the programme was too radical and had asked for some proposals to be toned down. In contrast the Social Democratic Party, another coalition member, has been calling for a total break with Serbia.
Meanwhile, in Serbia itself, Mr Vuk Draskovic's opposition Serb Renewal Movement (SPO) called yesterday for the resignation of Yugoslav Prime Minister, Mr Momir Bulatovic, as talks were held with parliamentary political parties about a possible federal government reshuffle.
The party said in a press statement that Mr Bulatovic, a close ally of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, should resign and be replaced by a representative of Montenegro's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). The naming of a premier by the DPS, winner of elections in Montenegro but not recognised as such by Belgrade, "would open the way to normalisation of relations between Serbia and Montenegro," the press statement said.
Signs of the first cracks within Mr Milosevic's own ranks also appeared yesterday. Mr Zoran Lilic, a vice-premier in the Yugoslav government, told the Vecernje Novosti newspaper that Serbia "must stop quarrelling with the world".
"This implies that the state authorities must intensify the democratic process in the country, promote liberalisation," Mr Lilic said. "If some of our people have committed crimes they must be held accountable. They will first meet with condemnation of our people," he added.
In southern Serbia, Mr Ivan Novkovic, a local television technician in southern Serbia who won fame and was jailed for organising a major anti-government protest last month, was released yesterday and was expected to attend a mass rally in his support.