(BELGRADE) - Voters in Serbia took to the polls on Sunday in general elections seen as a referendum giving its people a stark choice between entering or abandoning the European Union over Kosovo's independence.

Polling stations throughout Serbia opened at 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) and would remain open till 8:00 p.m. (1800 GMT). Early estimations of the results are expected two hours later.

More than 6.8 million voters -- including more than 115,000 Serbs scattered across Kosovo, the tense Albanian-majority province which broke away from Serbia in February -- will elect 250 parliamentary deputies, as well as local councillors.

The latest surveys showed the ultra-nationalist Radical Party with voter support of 34 percent, one point ahead of a pro-European alliance gathered around President Boris Tadic.

The elections are seen as the most important in the eight years since democratic forces overthrew late autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic, whose regime the Radicals supported.

The vote was called in March after the year-old government of conservative nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica collapsed in a rift over ties with the European Union after most EU nations recognised Kosovo's independence.

The parliamentary and local elections will be held in Kosovo despite opposition from the United Nations and Kosovo Albanians, who see the local polls as an attempt by Serbia to partition the breakaway territory.

The parliament of Kosovo, whose ethnic Albanians make up around 90 percent of its 1.8 million population, unilaterally declared independence on February 17.

Since then, about 40 countries led by the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan and most of the 27-nation European Union have recognised Kosovo, fuelling anti-Western anger, protests and violence in Serbia.

That anger has bolstered hardliners who want stronger ties with Russia, China, Arab and African nations instead of countries that have helped to carve off what most Serbs consider their medieval heartland.

For years the strongest single force in Serbia's 250-seat parliament, the Radicals are again likely to remain short of an outright majority following Sunday's elections.

However this time they appeared set to form a coalition government with Kostunica's nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), which has fiercely opposed the independence of Kosovo.

The pro-Europeans headed by Tadic's Democratic Party (DS) may have gained a few popularity points after signing the EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement -- a pre-membership accord -- in late April.

Whichever party wins the race, it will need to form a coalition with at least one other party, including the Socialists founded by Milosevic and the Liberal Democrats whose leader Cedomir Jovanovic negotiated his arrest in 2001.

The vote will be monitored by more than 2,000 local observers, as well as several international delegations, including representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

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