Kosovo Serb minister says he will not refuse to work in Ceku's cabinet

[Announcer] The new prime minister of Kosovo will most probably be elected at a session of the Kosovo Assembly by the end of this week. The candidate, Agim Ceku, will complete the list of his associates at the beginning of next week, the Albanian-language Kosovo press has said.

The minister of returns and only representative of the Serb community in the Kosovo government, Slavisa Petkovic, said that he would not refuse to be in Agim Ceku's cabinet. On the other hand, representatives of the Serb List for Kosovo-Metohija [headed by Oliver Ivanovic] said they would consider whether they should participate in some Kosovo institutions, following consultations this week. Jelena Aleksic has a report.

[Reporter] The Pristina newspaper Zeri said that Agim Ceku was intensively working on the list of his advisers, while Koha Ditore carried Ceku's statement that he would not elect any new ministers but that he would fire the disobedient ones. [Passage omitted; more press roundup]

Despite the fact that Ceku's list for the composition of the new government is not complete, and that the Serbian government had called for a halt to his election, Returns Minister Slavisa Petkovic said that he would not refuse to be in Agim Ceku's cabinet.

[Petkovic] Belgrade's position does not concern me for the simple reason that Agim Ceku is going to be elected prime minister. Belgrade has already certainly negotiated with him as early as in London in 19[date indistinct] but it will certainly have to talk with him once again. That means that this is demagoguery on their [Belgrade] part, and I am not really interested. [Passage omitted]

Source: Radio B92, Belgrade, in Serbian 0800 gmt 7 Mar 06