"(The EU) wants the referendum to be shifted from April to the early autumn of 2006, believing that in the meantime it will settle the Kosovo problem and that then it will be easier for the EU to handle this other process," Djukanovic said in an interview with Montenegrin Television on Thursday night.
Djukanovic also recalled that local elections were scheduled for May and parliamentary elections for October next year.
"That means that the time frame for holding the referendum is from the beginning of February until the end of April and there can be no calculations about it," the prime minister said.
Djukanovic said he had told European officials that delaying the referendum would be "political suicide" for Montenegro.