The EU formally recognized Montenegro's independence Monday, and urged the tiny Balkan country to forge healthy relations with Serbia.

EU foreign ministers said that the June 3 independence declaration by Montenegro's parliament represented legal confirmation of the outcome of a referendum, two weeks earlier, in which 55.5 percent of Montenegrins voted to end their union with Serbia.

That split dissolved the last vestiges of the former Yugoslavia.

The EU ministers said they would build close ties with Montenegro "as a sovereign, independent state," and urged its Podgorica-based government "to pursue a direct and constructive dialogue" on its future relations with Belgrade.

Spokesman Predrag Sekulic of Montenegro's governing Democratic Party of Socialists said the country was pleased with the EU's recognition. "It represents a great foundation for Montenegro's future path to Europe."

Both Serbia and Montenegro are to join the EU, though neither has formally been declared a candidate for membership.

The EU foreign ministers reaffirmed "the European perspective of the western Balkans" whose wars of the 1990s have kept the region out of the EU while other east European nations have joined.

Montenegro's 620,000 population is made up predominantly of Christian Orthodox Slavs. Up to 15 percent are Slavic Muslims. Ethnic Albanians account for 7 percent.

The country was recognized as an independent state in 1878 when it became a monarchy. After World War I in 1918, it merged with Serbia and some Slav-populated parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire to form what later became Yugoslavia, which unraveled along ethnic lines in the 1990s.

Croatia offers recognition

Croatia Monday became one of the first countries to recognize Montenegro as an independent state, 15 years after they fought a bloody war.

Iceland, Switzerland and Russia also recognize the tiny Balkan state.

"The government of Croatia recognizes Montenegro as a sovereign and independent state," the Croatian cabinet said Monday, expressing readiness to "develop good neighborly relations and co-operation" with Montenegro, to contribute to "peace, stability and progress" in the region.

The two countries are to establish diplomatic relations formally in the coming days.

In 1991, war broke out in Croatia when minority Serbs opposed Croatia's independence from the dissolving Yugoslavia. At the time, Montenegro and Serbia were allied in support of the Serb rebels in Croatia, and Montenegrin troops participated in attacks on Croatia's ancient city of Dubrovnik.

The war ended in 1995, and relations between Croatia and Montenegro have greatly improved, particularly after the Milo Djukanovic, president at that time, apologized in 2000 for the crimes that Montenegro troops committed during the war.

The government said it was convinced that Montenegro is aware of its role in Croatia's war, and that it was sure the countries would "develop new relations of ... mutual respect, turned to the future," the government statement said.

(China Daily June 13, 2006)