BELGRADE - Serbian ultra-nationalist candidate Tomislav Nikolic conceded defeat in the presidential election on Sunday to pro-Western rival Boris Tadic.
"I am inclined to inform you that Boris Tadic has most probably won these presidential elections with the advantage of around two percentage points," Nikolic told his Radical Party supporters.
"If this is proven, I congratulate him on this victory," added the former ally of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic who campaigned for closer ties with Russia.
"We will be a strong opposition both to the authorities and the president," he said in the party headquarters in the Belgrade suburb of Zemun.
"My message to Russia is to keep helping Serbia as it has done so far.
"My message to the EU is to stop blackmailing Serbia and stop putting impossible conditions, that we are ready to be within the EU, but there are some conditions we cannot fulfill," he said in a reference to pressure to accept independence for Kosovo province.
"You will have more chances to vote for me and for the others."
The electoral commission had earlier announced that Tadic of the Democratic Party had secured 51.16 percent of the vote compared with Nikolic's 47.18 percent and was headed for victory.
The preliminary results were released with 57 percent of the vote counted.
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02/03/2008 21:37 GMT