BELGRADE Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, acting as chief of his Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), has signed a cooperation protocol with Dragan Kalinic of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), DPA quoted local media as reporting Tuesday.

"DSS and SDS have been cooperating for years and have now formalized that cooperation," Kostunica said after signing the document in Belgrade late Monday.

In his words, the two parties have "managed to integrate national and democratic interests ... to hold our own in our space while having harmonious relations with the international community".

Both parties are widely perceived as Serbian nationalists, but, unlike Kostunica's DSS, the SDS has a troublesome legacy. during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, the SDS was run by Radovan Karadzic, who has been a fugitive from the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal over the last five years.

Responding to a reporter's question, Kalinic said that anybody who has been absent from party activities as long as Karadzic has "stops being its member".

He stressed that the cooperation protocol "will not harm any political party" in the Srpska Republic, the Bosnian Serb entity in Bosnia, or in Yugoslavia.