Eurasia

Sofia – Three Bulgarian political parties, the LIDER Party, the nationalist VMRO, and the Agrarian People’s Union, have united to form a new centre-right coalition called “Napred” (“Forward”).

Tirana – Albanian President Bamir Topi rejected the option of Kosovo’s partition along ethnic lines, in a joint press conference with his Kosovo counterpart on Monday in Tirana.

Pristina – Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiu has left for Albania in his first trip as a head of state to the country.

Podgorica – Neither Montenegro nor Serbia should close the door on their European future because of Kosovo, Svetozar Marovic, Montenegro’s ruling party vice-president says.

Pristina – Egypt will very soon recognise Kosovo’s independence, says Abdullah Al Eshal, Cairo’s former deputy foreign minister and counsel to President Hosni Mubarak.

Sarajevo – The government of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska, has hired a US law firm to deal with the Office of the High Representative and upcoming key reforms.

Belgrade – Serbia will not develop a nuclear power plant for at least another decade, Petar Skundric, the country’s Mining and Energy Minister says.

Zagreb – Croatian police are bringing murder and conspiracy charges against five suspects in the high-profile killing last week of a newspaper editor and his murder chief.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and Libya are negotiating a deal under which Moscow would build nuclear research reactors for the North African state and supply fuel, officials said on Saturday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia’s parliament endorsed career diplomat Grigol Mgaloblishvili as prime minister on Saturday in a step billed by President Mikheil Saakashvili as the start of a reform drive.