(BELGRADE) - Ultra-nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic, voting in general elections on Sunday, vowed to end Serbia's integration with the European Union unless it accepts Kosovo as a part of the country.

"With the European Union, we should not negotiate about anything anymore, without it first clearly saying that Serbia is recognised as a whole," Nikolic told reporters after casting his ballot in Belgrade.

"The European Union will decide by itself whether it wants Serbia as a part of it or not. We want to join the EU, but Serbia is a united state within the borders recognised by its membership in the United Nations."

Sunday's snap general elections give its people the stark choice of entering or rebuffing the European Union after the trauma of losing Kosovo, their historic heartland.

Nikolic's Radical Party is running neck-and-neck with a pro-European alliance spearheaded by President Boris Tadic, each credited with around one third of the vote, according to latest surveys.

For years the strongest single force in parliament, it is again expected to fall short of an outright majority. But this time it looks likely to form a government with outgoing nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

"I hope that we will form a government during the next week. Now I can openly say that we would like to form a government with DSS," Nikolic said outside the polling station at a converted kindergarten.

"The citizens of Serbia will sense great changes for the better.

"We will put an end to crime and corruption, we will defend our borders, we will cooperate with everyone in the world, with friends totally open, and with those who have shown they are not our friends, very cautiously," Nikolic said.

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