Serbian President's Car Rammed

A vehicle carrying Serbia's president, Boris Tadic, was repeatedly rammed by a car while travelling through Belgrade, his office said yesterday. This appeared to be the latest assassination attempt against public figures who are pro-western and urge the handover of suspected war criminals to the tribunal in The Hague.

Eighteen months after the pro-western prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, was shot dead outside his office in Belgrade, President Tadic, a former defence minister regularly at odds with the government over its policy of defiance of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, escaped unhurt while travelling in a convoy late on Tuesday.

The car crash assassination method has been used frequently in recent years in Serbia. Weeks before he was shot dead, Mr Djindjic's convoy was rammed while driving to Belgrade airport. The foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic, lost his brother-in-law and three other colleagues on a main road south of Belgrade in 1999 when a lorry smashed his motorcade off the road. A former Serbian secret police chief was later jailed for ordering the murders.

Mr Tadic and his aides said they would wait for police information on the incident, but were also indirectly critical of police for being slow off the mark with the investigation.

Elements in the police and the security structures have long been believed to be in cahoots with organised crime networks and extreme nationalist politicians.