Belgrade: Dragoljub Micunovic, the senior Democratic Party (DS) official yesterday stated that he was convinced that the DS will begin formal talks with the SPS on forming a new government next week, and the talks would be complete by the end of the month.

Micunovic said, “We’ll wait for the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) to definitely end talks with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the Serb Radical Party (SRS), but it’s obvious that there will be no so-called national government.”

Micunovic stated that the Socialists’ decision was more or less final, but that the problem lay in the formulation. He refuted media speculation that the SPS’s demands went as far as party leader Ivica Dacic becoming the new prime minister, stressing that that position would be filled by someone from the Democratic Party (DS) that was acceptable to everybody.

He added that it was unlikely that Dacic would become interior minister, stating that the DS, apart from the post of prime minister, would seek the European Integration, Defense, Security, Finance and Interior Ministries.