BELGRADE, Jul 9 (IPS) - Two months after the May 11 elections dubbed as 'crucial' for country's future, Serbia has now a pro-European coalition government made of former arch-enemies -- the Democrats of President Boris Tadic and the Socialists of late leader Slobodan Milosevic -- and parties of minority ethnic Hungarians from the north and Bosniaks living in south-western Serbia.

'This government is not a simple marriage of convenience, it's a marriage of strong interest,' analyst Zoran Stojiljkovic told IPS. 'From the beginning of talks between the Democrats and Socialists, it was defined as pro-European, socially responsible. Both parties strongly put an accent on that in their coalition agreement, although their rapprochement looked like an earthquake on the political scene.'

The new Prime Minister is Mirko Cvetkovic, a low profile Democrat and economist. He has promised quicker economic reforms, European Union (EU) membership and improved living standards for the nation of 7.5 million. These issues are mutually linked, and mostly depend on the international community, which has clearly repeated that Serbia's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is a precondition for any EU ambitions. The ICTY was set up to try war criminals.