EU (plays politics)and cracks door for Serbia in advance of vote - by Stephen Castle and Dan Bilefski
With a fresh round of tight elections looming in Serbia, the European Union on Tuesday signed a pre-membership pact with Belgrade in a bid to help pro-Western forces avoid defeat by nationalists at the polls May 11. European ministers overcame sharp internal divisions over the Serbian government's failure to hunt down war crimes suspects and signed an agreement giving the clearest signal yet that Serbia can eventually join the 27-nation bloc.
The gesture could help turn the elections next month into a test of whether Serbia wants to join the EU - the world's largest trading bloc - or adopt a nationalist path more closely aligned with Moscow. Under a compromise among EU governments, Belgrade will not receive the benefits from the trade and assistance accord with the EU until it is judged to be cooperating fully with the United Nations war crimes tribunal.
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