Serbian deputy PM quits

Perisic was released after two days without being charged

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Momcilo Perisic has quit after becoming embroiled in a spy scandal.

Perisic accepted a request from Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic to resign and waive his parliamentary immunity to allow a full investigation of the affair, the head of his office told Reuters news agency.

Army police arrested Perisic on Thursday night with a U.S. diplomat as they met in a restaurant near Belgrade, and accused him of passing top secret military documents. (Full story)

The U.S. diplomat was released the following day and Perisic was held for one more day before being released without charge. Authorities have 30 days to decide if they will charge him.

Perisic, insisting he was innocent of the spying accusations, said on Tuesday he was stepping down to stop the whole Serbian government coming under pressure to resign, the head of his office Nebojsa Mandic said.

"I am extending my full cooperation to the Serbian government regardless of the fact that I am resigning today from the post of deputy prime minister," he quoted a letter sent by Perisic to Djindjic earlier on Tuesday as saying.

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"I will not let them use their showdown with me to topple the Serbian government at a moment when it represents the only possibility for carrying out economic and political reforms in the country," the letter continued.

Perisic was army chief during much of the rule of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial at the war crimes tribunal at the Hague.

Washington had reacted angrily to the arrest of U.S. embassy first secretary John David Neighbor, claiming he had been mistreated.

The U.S. State Department said on Monday it had accepted an apology from Yugoslavia's foreign minister for the treatment of Neighbor.