PODGORICA: SERBIA INDEPENDENT BEFORE THREE YEARS' END

PODGORICA, May 11 (Hina) - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said on Saturday at a convention of his Democratic Party of Socialists in Cetinje that "it would be no surprise if Serbia officially decides on its independence, before the end of the three-year deadline". #L# "This idea is now better understood in Serbia, and within a year will be understood even better," he said, and added that the initiative of Montenegro's independence was met with misunderstanding in Serbia because of "the short time of Serbia's democratic maturing". Djukanovic warned, however, that some "humble democratic forces in Serbia were still facing hard-line nationalist legacies, primarily from the intellectual elite of Serbia." (hina) lml