(BELGRADE) - Serbia's parliament met Monday to vote in a new Western-leaning government that has made membership of the European Union its foreign policy priority.

The governing coalition is an unlikely union between pro-Europeans and the Socialists of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

President Boris Tadic has appointed economist Mirko Cvetkovic prime minister of the new administration, whose formation ends five months of political deadlock triggered by Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.

"Full fledged EU membership is the core interest of the Republic of Serbia and its citizens," Cvetkovic told the parliament.

"Therefore, one of the first moves of the new government will be to submit the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) to the National Parliament for ratification," he said.

The outgoing coalition, a shaky union of Tadic's pro-Europeans and the nationalists of Vojislav Kostunica, collapsed in March over a dispute about the SAA, considered a first step to EU membership.

That came after most EU nations recognised Kosovo's independence.

The new government pairs the coalition "For a European Serbia" (ZES), led by Tadic's Democratic Party, with a group of parties headed by the Socialist Party (SPS).

The Democrats had been among the fiercest opponents of the Socialist Party since the 1990s, when with Milosevic at its helm, it led the country to war and isolation.

Late Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic was the architect of a popular uprising that ousted Milosevic in 2000, while the SPS deemed unforgivable Djindjic's decision to hand Milosevic over to the UN war crimes tribunal the next year.

However, both sides now vow to reconcile their differences in order to move Serbia forward and towards the European Union.

Brussels has already said it would support Serbia's new government, which would aim to join the 27-nation bloc within four years, according to Cvetkovic.

"The government's main objective is for Serbia to gain EU candidate country status by the end of this year or by the beginning of next year, through the acceleration of economic and other reforms envisaged by the SAA," he said.

The prime minister-designate said his cabinet would "adopt an action plan whose implementation would fully prepare Serbia to accede to the European Union by the end of this government's term of office."

Cvetkovic also pledged strict "prompt" compliance with all international obligations -- a clear reference to demands that the new government deliver remaining war crimes suspects, including Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, to the UN tribunal in The Hague.

"This is the only way our country can become a full fledged and respected member of the international community," he said.

However, he used much stronger words to pledge "preservation" of Kosovo within Serbia's boundaries.

"There is a full consent among the coalition members that the new government of the Republic of Serbia will never recognise the independence of Kosovo and ... will undertake all legal and diplomatic measures so as to preserve Kosovo as an integral part of the Republic of Serbia," he said.

Cvetkovic was finance minister in the government of his predecessor Kostunica. A trained economist, he has worked for the World Bank in India and Pakistan.

He said his government would seek to bring down unemployment and inflation and step up investment in infrastructure, while aiming for annual economic growth of around seven percent.

Privatisation would be a key catalyst to liberalise the market.

In Serbia's parliamentary elections on May 11, the ZES coalition won 102 seats in the 250-member parliament, while the Socialist-led bloc garnered 20.

The cabinet can also count on the support of seven MPs from minority parties.

The opposition is dominated by the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party with 78 seats, Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia with 30 and Liberal Democratic Party's 13 deputies.

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