Montenegrin official shot dead

PODGORICA, Yugoslavia -- A senior secret service officer has died after being gunned down by assassins in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro, a news report said.

Darko Raspopovic, who was loyal to pro-independence President Milo Djukanovic, was slain by bullets fired from a moving car on Monday, Beta news agency reported.

The state-run Tanjug news agency's account differed. They said a single assassin approached Raspopovic and fired from a gun with a silencer then ran away.

Last May a security advisor to Djukanovic was shot dead in Podgorica by an unknown gunman.

The shooting of Goran Zugic, considered one of Djukanovic's closest and most reliable allies, was the first such high-profile killing in Montenegro, junior partner to Serbia in the Yugoslav federation.

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Several top officials and under-world figures were killed in mysterious circumstances in Belgrade in the final years of Slobodan Milosevic's rule, including defence minister Pavle Bulatovic last February.

Relations between Serbia and Montenegro were increasingly strained under Milosevic, ousted last October, as the independence-minded leadership of the tiny coastal republic sought closer ties with the West.

Government crisis

In an unrelated development, Montenegro's pro-independence ruling party proposed early elections on Monday in order to resolve the current government crisis after one party pulled out of the coalition.

Svetozar Marovic, deputy chairman of the Democratic Party of Socialists and a parliament speaker, said such a ballot should be held by late March.

The People's Party left the coalition of Djukanovic last Thursday to protest a government proposal that the Yugoslav federation become a loose union of two internationally recognised states.

The People's Party -- which favours political equality with Serbia within the Yugoslav federation -- argues that the proposal would mean de facto independence for Montenegro.

It had four ministers in the government, and holds seven seats in the 78-member parliament. Djukanovic's party and an allied party together hold 35 seats.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.