Turnout was some 69 percent, about 22 percentage points higher than in 2003, when Vujanovic won his first five-year term, according to estimates of election monitors.

Vujanovic's supporters celebrated his victory with huge fireworks in the capital Podgorica. Some supporters honked their car horns and waved Montenegro's red flags with a golden eagle in downtown Podgorica.

The election is held at the backdrop of the regional tension caused by Kosovo's unilateral declaring of independence on Feb. 17.

Unlike its fellow former Yugoslav republics Croatia and Slovenia, the Montenegrin government has yet to recognize Kosovo, a Serbian southern province dominated by ethnic Albanians.

Although ethnic Albanian minority makes up some 7 percent of population, Montenegro is more wary of enraging ethnic Serbs who make up some 30 percent of its 650,000 population.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2008)