Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Tuesday he accepted the preliminary results of Montenegro's independence referendum that heralded the tiny Balkan republic's breakaway from the state union of Serbia-Montenegro.

"As a president I advocated preservation of the state union, but as a president of a democratic country, I am ready to accept the majority decision of the people of Montenegro," Tadic told a press conference.

He called on all political factors in Serbia and Montenegro to enable the Republican Referendum Commission (RRC) in Montenegro to establish the final results and remove all doubts regarding the course of the referendum process.

At the Sunday referendum, 55.5 percent of citizens voted for an independent Montenegro, while 44.5 percent voted for the survival of the state union with Serbia, according to preliminary results that the RRC released on Tuesday.

The turnout was 86.49 percent, with 230,711 citizens voting for independent Montenegro and 184,954 voting against, said Frantisek Lipka, president of the RRC.

The release of the final results will depend on the number of complaints, said Lipka, adding that the RRC has not received any to date and complaints may be submitted within three days.

Under conditions mediated by the European Union, Montenegro's independence will not be valid unless the referendum passes the threshold of 55 percent of votes with a turnout of at least half of the mountainous republic's 484,718 registered voters.

On Tuesday, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that Serbia would fully respect results of the Montenegrin referendum, but warned that there should not be any doubts concerning the referendum.

"Submission of complaints and response to them still remains, so we shall have to wait for the final results," Kostunica told reporters after his meeting with European Union envoy for the Montenegrin referendum Miroslav Lajcak.

He reiterated that, according to the Constitutional Charter of Serbia-Montenegro, Serbia is the legal successor of the loose state union of Serbia-Montenegro, which was renamed from the Yugoslav federal republic in February 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2006)