Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has vowed to contest the latest round of Serbian presidential elections after too few people turned out to make the result valid.

Vojislav Kostunica: Vows to fight on

Fewer than 45% of voters cast their ballots - less than the 50% required for the poll to count.

Sunday's poll repeated a fiasco seen in October, when the first attempt to elect a president also fell foul of the 50% threshold.

Mr Kostunica won almost 60% of votes cast on Sunday and got two-thirds of the votes first time round.

But he has complained electoral lists were inflated with more than half a million non-existent voters, making the 50% hurdle harder to cross.

The bitter enmity between Mr Kostunica and his political rival, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic means the scene is now set for a power struggle which could rip the Serbian political establishment apart.

Mr Kostunica accuses Mr Djindjic of scuppering attempts to completely annul the law imposing the 50% threshold, after the failure of the October election.

Crime is the right word for what happened here

Vojislav Kostunica

He is keen to secure the presidency and retain his influence in Serbia before the Yugoslav federation is disbanded in the next few months.

Mr Kostunica is currently Yugoslav President - a post that will cease to exist under the new union of Serbia and Montenegro that is to be formed.

Serbian analysts are speculating that Mr Kostunica's party may seek to destabilise, or even bring down the Serbian Government, in an attempt to prevent Mr Kostunica from being sidelined by Mr Djindjic.

'Crime'

"We will not recognise the results of this election," Mr Kostunica said after the results of Sunday's vote were announced.

"Crime is the right word for what happened here".

I voted last time but not now. Why should I vote since they only argue about their positions?

Milutin Bajevic

Mr Kostunica took 57.9% of Sunday's votes, well ahead of the 36% won by his nearest challenger, Vojislav Seselj - a firebrand Serbian nationalist backed by ex-Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

The term of current Serbian President Milan Milutinovic runs out in January. He is then likely to be extradited to The Hague where he has been indicted for war crimes alongside Mr Milosevic.

The Serbian parliament speaker, Natasa Micic, is likely to fill in the presidency until a successor can be found.

Kostunica blamed

Observers blamed the low turnout on the first winter snows and continuing voter apathy and popular discontent with politicians.

"I voted last time but not now. Why should I vote since they only argue about their positions?" Milutin Bajevic, a 58-year-old dentist from Belgrade, told the AFP news agency.

But Prime Minister Djindjic blamed Mr Kostunica for the failure of voters to turn up.

''The exclusive responsibility ... is on Kostunica," Mr Djindjic said. ''I did not see any campaign. The voters were not animated.''

Mr Kostunica went to court to challenge the annulment of the October election, alleging that only the addition of 630,000 "ghost" voters to the electoral roll had prevented turnout crossing the 50% threshold.

But the court said he should have objected before the election.

Last month parliament amended the election law removing the 50% threshold for the second round of the vote, but leaving it in place for the first round.