"There is no separatism and there never was any in Vojvodina. The Democratic Party has an absolute majority in the Vojvodina Parliament so, even if there were any tendencies to endanger the unity of Serbia, it would not have a chance," Pajtić told the daily Večernje Novosti.

He said that the DS, of which he is the vice-president, is a party of civic orientation and that the principle of creating ethnic autonomy is completely foreign and unacceptable.

Pajtić expects that parliament will adopted a new statute in the fall for Vojvodina, which he states will not go against the Serbian constitution.

Speaking of the possibilitz of renaming of the current executive council to "government", Pajtić said that the name this body has now comes from the communist period and that it sounds obsolete.

Asked whether the price of the Ddemocrats' cooperation with the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) will be the return of Slobodan Milošević's widow Mira Marković to Serbia, Pajtić said that he has "yet to hear such demands from the Socialists".

"The agreement with the SPS, in whose creation I am not participating, cannot be based on the past, when we were angry opponents. It must confirm, once and for all times, that national interest are more important than personal and partisan ones," Pajtić said.

He added that he does not rule out cooperation with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), "in several years, if the party changes its anti-European policies".