(HELSINKI) - EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn on Friday urged Serbians to vote for pro-European candidates in the country's general election in which Serbia's future direction is a key issue.

"Serbia faces a critical decision this weekend. Support between these two groups, the pro-European democratic group and the more rear-mirror looking nationalistic group, is rather even," Rehn said in an interview with Finnish national broadcaster YLE.

"I hope Serbia would turn towards Europe because it would be better for Serbia and for Europe," he stressed.

Pro-European Serbian leaders last week signed a so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, but eurosceptic nationalists the Radical Party (SRS) and caretaker Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) have vowed to annul the agreement.

They are opposed to any steps to EU membership, unless the 27-nation bloc acknowledges that the breakaway province of Kosovo should remain part of Serbia.

Rehn said the EU accord gives Serbs strong and concrete prospects within Europe, while a nationalist victory would halt EU integration.

Sunday's parliamentary elections are shaping into the tightest race in the Balkan country's recent history.

Surveys give the Radicals 36 percent of voter support, versus 35 percent for the pro-European camp spearheaded by President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS).

The polls were triggered by the collapse of the Kostunica government in a row over the country's EU integration after Kosovo split away.

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