http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headline\
s/000929/world/afp/Greece_offers_to_monitor_recount_of_Yugoslav_vote.html

Friday, September 29 11:38 PM SGT

Greece offers to monitor recount of Yugoslav vote

ATHENS, Sept 29 (AFP) -

Greece, working to break the impasse over the Yugoslav elections, offered Friday
to send observers
to Yugoslavia to monitor a recount of ballots.

Greek foreign ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis told AFP that Athens "agreed the
results of the
vote must be verified in a recount" and that the government was "ready to send
experts to
participate" in the task.

Greece, along with Russia considers itself a friend of Belgrade, is working with
France, which
currently holds the EU presidency, to try to resolve the crisis over the outcome
of the vote.

The opposition maintains that challenger Vojislav Kostunica won the September 24
vote but
supporters of incumbent Slobodan Milosevic are refusing to admit defeat.

The Yugoslav elections commission, comprised of Milosevic allies, has said that
neither candidate
garnered 50 percent of the vote and that a runoff will take place October 8.

Kostunica has refused to stand in the runoff and is calling for a recount of the
vote under international
supervision.

A Greek foreign ministry official said earlier that the three governments were
exploring venues that
would ensure that Kostunica would stand in the runoff including the possiblity
of a recount with
international observers present.

Greek Foreign Minister Georges Papandreou spoke with Kostunica Thursday and told
him that he
should "keep his options open," Beglitis said.