Key players in Kostunica government

ZORAN ZIZIC, PRIME MINISTER

A former lecturer at the Faculty of Law in his home town of Podgorica, the capital of the coastal republic of Montenegro, Zizic, 49, entered politics in 1988 and was previously a close ally of Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia.

When Montenegro's ruling party broke up in 1997, Zizic joined the pro-Milosevic faction, the Socialist People's Party (SNP) and became its deputy president. He has been a prominent critic of Montenegro's pro-Western government.

The SNP decided to end its old alliance with Serbia's Socialists at federal level following Milosevic's downfall and Zizic emerged as the party's strongest candidate for premier.

Under Yugoslavia's constitution, the prime minister should be from Montenegro if the president is a Serb.

Zizic is married, has two children and speaks fluent German.

MIROLJUB LABUS, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

A prominent economics expert with international experience, Labus, 53, is currently teaching economics at the Law School of Belgrade University. He will play a key role in the new government's economic policy, with special responsibility for international economic relations.

Labus, who has a Ph.D. in economics, spent two years in the United States teaching at Cornell University in the 1980s. He has also held positions at the United Nations Development Programme and World Bank.

He entered the Yugoslav parliament in 1992 and two years later became vice president of the Democratic Party.

Labus is a prominent member of the G-17 economic think-tank that provided the economic platform for the Democratic Opposition of Serbia bloc backing President Vojislav Kostunica.

GORAN SVILANOVIC, FOREIGN MINISTER

Born in Kosovo in 1963, Svilanovic, leader of the Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS), is reported to be Kostunica's personal choice to run Yugoslav diplomacy.

Svilanovic was an assistant lecturer at the Belgrade Law Faculty from 1989-1998, before being fired for objecting to a new university law drafted by Milosevic's Socialist Party.

He became widely known as a politician in 1997 when he was the GSS spokesman and became party leader last year.

Svilanovic, who speaks English and German, has played an important role in different human rights organisations and in an anti-war movement in Serbia. He is married and has two children.

As Kostunica's special envoy, he has already made several appearances on the diplomatic stage. He was at the United Nations this week for Belgrade's entry into the world body.

ZORAN ZIVKOVIC, INTERIOR MINISTER

Zivkovic, 39, is in his second four-year term as mayor of his native town of Nis in southern Serbia. Graduated from a high school for economics in Belgrade.

Before entering politics, he founded a small private trading company. He joined the Democratic Party in 1989 when it was founded. From 1993 to 1995, he was the head of its Nis branch and a deputy in the Serbian parliament from 1993 to 1997.

He is deputy leader of the Democrats, and has been mayor of Nis since 1996. He is married and has two children.

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