BELGRADE Vojislav Kostunica might feel some quiet satisfaction at his first two weeks as Yugoslav president if only he had the time.
The 56-year-old constitutional lawyer, catapulted to power on an uprising that forced Slobodan Milosevic to admit defeat in last month's elections, has plenty to show for the early stages of his presidency.
But Kostunica has such a huge task still ahead of him that one of his allies even joked this week he should be taking tablets to keep himself awake day and night.
Since taking office two weeks ago on Saturday, the new president's main achievement has been in restoring ties with the the West, broken off during a decade of Milosevic rule which brought four Balkan Wars and international pariah status.
He has received and impressed a stream of high-level foreign visitors whose presence in Belgrade would have been unthinkable just a few weeks before, ranging from French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine to U.S. President Bill Clinton's Balkans envoy.
"This is a very smart guy with a very clear vision of how he wants to move ahead," said a Western official who met Kostunica.
The new president also felt his grip on power was strong enough to leave the country last weekend for France to attend a European Union summit, where he received a warm welcome. The EU and the United States have both lifted economic sanctions.
And after a decade in which Kostunica's native Serbia has been associated by many of its neighbors with belligerence, he has sent out some conciliatory signals.
He dispatched some of his allies to Croatia, visited Montenegro Serbia's estranged partner in the Yugoslav Federation and plans to attend a summit of regional leaders in the Macedonian capital Skopje next week.
At home, his supporters have struck a deal with Milosevic's socialists to share power in the Serbian government, the real power center in Yugoslavia, until early parliamentary elections at which they are confident of winning a sweeping victory.
And, although his opponents complain of anarchy and chaos as workers boot out Milosevic allies from state companies and institutions, his calm authority and insistence on legality have helped stop revolutionary fervor spiralling out of control.
"He managed to do a lot to calm down passions here," said Bratislav Grubacic, editor of the Belgrade newsletter Vip.
For ordinary Yugoslavs, the change of power has been reflected in a palpable sense of relief among many and a general opening up of the country's institutions.
Serbian state television, which used to churn out nationalist propaganda, has suddenly started showing the Montenegrin evening news on its second channel.
Another station has broadcast a documentary on the work of the war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia, which has indicted Milosevic and four associates and was long denounced as a political court run from Washington.
But for many citizens, the changes have also meant soaring food prices as artificial controls imposed by the Milosevic government to keep social peace fall away.
The prices point to the new rulers' biggest challenge transforming a bankrupt, run-down state-controlled economy.
"We are facing a real economic and social time bomb," said Jurij Bajec, a senior adviser at Yugoslavia's Independent Economics Institute.
"I don't think people realize the pain of transition. We have needed reforms for the past 10 years but they have always been avoided up until now." The president himself will also have his hands full keeping all his allies on board.
Kostunica ran on the ticket of the democratic opposition of Serbia, a disparate alliance of 18 parties which is likely to prove unwieldy over time.
"Who are we going to talk to? monarchists, to talk about getting a king back? or social democrats, to get a republic?" complained Miodrag Vukovic, a senior adviser to Montenegro's President Milo Djukanovic.
Sorting out the future of Montenegro, which provides Serbia with access to the Adriatic Sea, is another priority for Kostunica.
The small republic became increasingly independence-minded during the Milosevic years.
The status of the Province of Kosovo, currently run as an international protectorate, also has to be addressed.
The president must also decide what to do with his predecessor and his allies.
Milosevic is said to be still in Belgrade and trying to pull political strings behind the scenes. Many key figures in the state under the authoritarian leader, including the army chief of staff and other security bosses, remain in office.
Many Serbs would like to see the former president put on trial at home for abuse of power.
Some of Kostunica's allies would also have preferred him to act more quickly and decisively in purging the state of Milosevic appointees.
So far the new president has been quiet on these issues and the broader question of how Serbia deals with its recent past.
Serbs have spoken a lot in the past few weeks about the wrongs done to them under Milosevic but little about the violence inflicted on others in the name of a greater Serbia.
"We have to pursue a longer process of getting to know what really happened," newsletter editor Grubacic said.
"This will be a very complicated and sensitive process here." (Reuter)