The allies of the former Yugoslav president, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, finally signed up yesterday to an agreement for a new coalition government. This will run Serbia until elections on December 23rd.
The agreement ended a week of obstruction by the Socialist party which had prompted the 18-party alliance of the new President, Dr Vojislav Kostunica, to threaten to bring hundreds of thousands of protesters back on to the streets.
The general strike and mass protests which brought Mr Milosevic down on October 5th are now known as the Bulldozer Revolution, because bulldozers were used to smash a way into the headquarters of Serbian state-run radio and television and the federal parliament building.
Dr Kostunica's allies in the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) said they would bring the bulldozers back if the Socialists, who form the largest party in the Serbian government, did not accept early elections.
Under the deal for a poll, which DOS is confident of winning, the Socialists will retain the post of Serbian prime minister in the transitional government. But the prime minister will have to act in consensus with two deputy prime ministers, one from DOS and the other from the Serbian Renewal Movement of Mr Vuk Draskovic. The hardline nationalist leader, Mr Vojislav Seseslj, who holds a large block of seats in the Serbian parliament, refused to take part in the new government.
Mr Draskovic said the agreement meant "the end of Serbia as a country of organised terrorism".
The Serbian ministries of police, information, justice and finance will be shared between appointees from the Socialist party and from DOS, according to the agreement. The Serbian parliament is to be dissolved later this month.
The agreement is a big step in DOS's drive to reduce Mr Milosevic's remaining grip on some levers of power. It will help to restore the sense of momentum which began to stall last week when DOS was unable to consolidate its presidential election victory.
Dr Kostunica has also been slow in appointing a prime minister for the Yugoslav Federation and a new Yugoslav government, partly because of disagreements with the Montenegrin government of Mr Milo Djukanovic. He has not changed the army high command or the minister of defence, both of whom were fiercely loyal to Mr Milosevic.
The deal for a Serbian government was signed yesterday by negotiators from DOS, the Socialists and the Serbian Renewal Movement, as well as Dr Kostunica and the Serbian President Milan Milutinovic. It made no mention of what happens to the Serbian presidency. Mr Milutionovic, once a crony of Mr Milosevic, has also been indicted for war crimes by the international tribunal in The Hague. Recently he has seemed to distance himself from the former president.
The next step in Mr Milosevic's fight for political survival will come on November 25th when his Socialist party holds an emergency congress to discuss its election defeat. There may well be a push for Mr Milosevic to resign.
Mr Milosevic and his associates are criminals who have stashed over $100 million in ill-gotten funds abroad, German intelligence agents said yesterday. "Considerable evidence indicates Milosevic and his entourage constitute an organised crime structure and are engaged in drug dealing, money laundering and other criminal acts."