Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic urged the European Union to speed up his country's bid for membership, to prevent a nationalist takeover of the government that could spawn instability in the Balkans.

Jeremic, in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Brussels yesterday, called on the EU to sign a trade pact, the first step to entry, to smooth the re-election of pro-western President Boris Tadic against an anti-EU challenger this month.

EU governments have balked at inking the trade accord until Serbia arrests the remaining war-crimes suspects from the 1990s Yugoslav conflicts. Serbia, once the dominant republic in Yugoslavia, is counting on future EU membership to help end the legacy of bloodshed in the Balkans.

Closing the deal ``would give a significant boost to the pro-European candidacy,'' Jeremic said. ``And everybody is expecting the signing. So if it doesn't happen, conversely, it is going to be a significant blow.''

U.S.-educated Jeremic, 32, cast the election as a referendum on whether Serbia, historically torn between East and West, evolves into a free-market European democracy or retreats into isolation.

The race between Tadic, 49, and Tomislav Nikolic, 55, an opponent of hitching Serbia's fate to the EU, is ``almost a dead heat,'' Jeremic said. He predicted that no candidate will win a majority in the first round on Jan. 20, forcing a Feb. 3 runoff.

EU `Referendum'

``It's going to be a referendum toward Europe or away from Europe,'' Jeremic said. A defeat for the pro-EU camp would mean that ``our goal of joining the European Union would probably end up being delayed for the next generation or more.''

As foreign minister since May, Jeremic has emerged as the public face of Serbia's outreach to the West. With degrees from the U.K.'s Cambridge University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, he worked at companies including Deutsche Bank AG and AstraZeneca Plc before returning to Serbia after the 2000 revolution ended authoritarian rule.

``The EU should cooperate much more closely and listen much more to pro-European, pro-democracy policy makers in Serbia,'' said Pavol Demes, director of the Bratislava office of the German Marshall Fund. ``Without a stable Serbia, a Serbia on the path to the EU, I don't think we can achieve the grander project of bringing the western Balkans into the European mainstream.''

Trade Accord

Jeremic called on the EU to sign the trade accord at a scheduled EU-Serbia meeting Jan. 28 in Brussels. That date is backed by Slovenia, a fellow member of the former Yugoslav federation that now holds the 27-nation EU's six-month presidency.

So far, the Netherlands has led the opposition to the signing, demanding that Serbia first show its democratic credentials by arresting former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, charged with orchestrating the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslims. The Serb government in the past said it didn't have proof that Mladic was in the country.

While Serbia missed a self-imposed end-of-2007 deadline to hand over Mladic to United Nations war-crimes prosecutors, Jeremic said that ``this remains a priority. Mladic is going to be arrested.''

The election comes as Serbia fights a rear-guard action against EU plans to chart the way to independence for its southern province of Kosovo, a mostly ethnic Albanian enclave under UN administration.

NATO Air War

Serbs view Kosovo as the birthplace of their civilization, and are still coming to terms with the consequences of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 1999 air war that wrested control of the province away from Belgrade.

NATO's bombing campaign halted the Serb army's crackdown on the ethnic Albanians that make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population of 2 million. Some 7.5 million people live in Serbia proper.

Kosovo remains legally part of Serbia. Efforts by the U.S. and EU to win statehood were blocked by Russia, Serbia's longstanding ally, in the UN Security Council last year and direct talks between Serb and Kosovo leaders came to naught.

Jeremic said he will go to the UN Security Council on Jan. 16 to make the case for more talks -- a plea already rejected by the U.S. and EU.

Instead, EU leaders agreed last month to steer Kosovo toward independence and to deploy a 1,800-strong police mission to take over the management of the province. The timing and diplomatic arrangements for the EU mission have yet to be decided, and skeptical countries such as Cyprus -- itself divided, and facing a Turkish territorial claim on the north of the island -- haven't given final assent.

EU Unity on Kosovo

So far, the EU has shown more unity on Kosovo than it did when Yugoslavia started to crumble in 1991. At the time, Germany rushed to recognize breakaway republics, splitting the bloc and forcing it to rely on U.S. airpower to end the ensuing civil wars.

Jeremic repeated Serb threats to downgrade relations with countries that grant diplomatic recognition to Kosovo, while saying the government won't impose economic sanctions that end up hurting Serbia more.

``The government has an action plan but we're not going to reveal our tactics,'' Jeremic said. ``We will try and make sure there is the least damage to Serbia as a result of these measures, but we will not shy away from engaging an economic component.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Marie-Louise Moller in Brussels at mmoller2@bloomberg.net; James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 10, 2008 05:26 EST