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Sunday, October 29 7:35 PM SGT

US urges Montenegro to back Yugoslavia's international return

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Oct 29 (AFP) -

A US official urged the Montenegrin authorities to back Yugoslavia's swift
return to international
institutions after the change of power in Belgrade earlier this month, the
Podgorica daily Pobjeda
reported Sunday.

US president Bill Clinton's special adviser for Balkans James O'Brien told the
paper that Yugoslavia
should be quickly integrated into all internatinal institutions.

"There should not be delay in it," he said, adding that the Montenegrin
authorities should not caused
any delay.

Montenegro raised objections after Yugoslavia requested re-addmission to the
United Nations on
Friday.

Miodrag Vukovic of Montenegro's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), the party
of pro-Western
President Milo Djukanovic, said the two republics should first renegotiate their
own partnership, a
longstanding grievance.

But O'Brien said future relations between the two federal partners were an
internal matter.

Montenegrin Foreign Minister Branko Lukovac warned Sunday that Montenegro's
opposition to the
international community's desire to welcome Yugoslavia back into the fold could
in the end be
counter-productive.

He argued that Montenegro's should avoid spoiling the image it had built up
during its years of
opposition to the regime of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

But if the Montenegrin people voted for independence, the republic should press
ahead in the face
on any hostility, he added.

Montenegro's ruling party was ready to do everything necessary to integrate
independent
Montenegro into all international institutions, said Lukovac.

Since Djukanovic came to power in 1998, Montenegro has been edging towards
independence
from Belgrade and Milosevic's regime.

Relations between the two republics were severely strained earlier this year
when Milosevic pushed
through constitutional changes reducing Montenegro's influence in the
federation.

In Belgrade Friday, Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic and the DOS said
they had agreed
to postpone a decision on Yugoslavia's future until a key vote on December 23.

Serbians go to the polls in eight weeks' time to elect a new government, the
real seat of power in
Yugoslavia.

Reformers in Belgrade and Podgorica see the election as a golden opportunity to
rout Milosevic's
supporters once and for all.