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BELGRADE - Maverick Serbian opposition leader Vuk Draskovic on Friday ruled out further contacts with other members of the opposition, who he blamed for the unfriendly reception he got at a mass protest rally in Belgrade.
Just a day after joining his bitterest opposition rival on a pubic platform for the first time in more than two years, Draskovic dismissed the whistles, jeers and flying bottles which greeted his surprise appearance at the anti-government rally.
"I didn't notice the incident as I didn't want to see it," Draskovic told Reuters in a telephone interview.
But he said that for his Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) the message was clear -- the opposition Democratic Party led by his bitter rival Zoran Djindic did not want him there.
"It turned out that the Democratic Party organised and prepared the incident to send a message to the SPO, a message which we have received and understood," he said.
Draskovic's theatrical appearance at the meeting, which he had earlier refused to attend, was booed by many of protesters, some of whom later threw plastic bottles at him as he left.
Djindjic denied any official party involvement in the incident, saying the crowd was angry because Draskovic told them governments could not be changed through street protests.
"People...are pretty disappointed if they gather in spite of petrol shortages and extreme heat, if they have the courage to come and then are told that they are not needed there," he said.
"That's the only reason, there is no other reason."
The mercurial Draskovic said popular pressure had forced him to turn up, referring to cries of "Vuk! Vuk!" by noisy SPO supporters at the front of the crowd.
The meeting was called by an independent economist trying to bring the feuding opposition behind the idea of forming an interim government aimed at linking Draskovic and Djindjic and encouraging Milosevic to step aside.
"We came to the meeting although we knew the idea of interim government would be devalued by the organisers themselves," Draskovic said.
"But for the sake of the people and some sort of unity we ordered our members not to blow a single whistle at Djindjic or at anybody from different opposition parties."
Draskovic said he had been told the Democratic Party was responsible for another incident in Nis, southern Serbia, where a monument of the party's icon, World War Two pro-monarchy guerrilla leader Draza Mihajlovic, was destroyed.
He said his party would not fight back.
"There will be no conflicts with the Democratic Party. They have made us give up on having any relations with them."
He said the idea of interim governments had been buried on Thursday night and reiterated that the only way to change the current regime was through early elections that should be held by the last quarter of this year.
"There is only one way - through democratic early elections held by the end of October or beginning of November. Otherwise we will face the hell of civil war," Draskovic said.
Draskovic said street protests were not excluded as a means of forcing the government into accepting international rules for the polls, but said direct negotiations should be tried first.
He also stated, confusingly, there would have to be prior agreement from opposition parties if street protests turned out to be necessary.
Asked to define conditions under which the opposition would gather together again, Draskovic said that there would be no gathering under any circumstances. "They can all forget about that story as far as we're concerned", he said.