THE former Spanish prime minter, Mr Felipe Gonzalez, arrived in Belgrade yesterday at the head of an OSCE mission called in by the Serbian President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, to examine local election results, whose cancellation has sparked a month long political crisis.
Some 100,000 people marched through Belgrade earlier yesterday on the 32nd consecutive day of mass protest at the cancellation of results from the local elections on November 17th, which handed sweeping victories to the opposition in 15 of Serbia's 18 largest towns.
Earlier, about 20,000 students moved to block off bridges across the river Sava in downtown Belgrade upsetting traffic in the Yugoslav' capital.
Mr Gonzalez, who met the chief of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Mr Flavio Cotti, in Berne, on his way to Belgrade, said: "It may be mission impossible, but we must not lose heart and draw any hasty conclusions."
The visit came a day after the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Mr Milan Milutinovic, said municipal elections could be rescheduled if the OSCE team came up with new facts.
"If, after a serious inquiry carried out without prejudice, it discovers facts which have escaped the notice of our institutions and suggests that they re-examine facts which should lead to new elections, then why not?" he said.
"The law provides that once taken, decisions can be re-examined if new facts come to light," Mr Milutinovic said.
Mr Cotti said the delegation should have access to all the people, documents, institutions and electoral commissions that it needs. For his part, Mr Milutinovic said he did not expect the OSCE's conclusions to be binding.
Mr Gonzalez said he hoped the delegation - which includes representatives from Canada, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, the "US and the EU - would be able to submit for Mr Cotti a report and an update on progress before the end of the year.
A spokeswoman for the delegation, Ms Melissa Fleming, quoted by the independent B-92 radio station, said the OSCE would back any decision taken by the authorities if it was based on the team's findings.
The opposition leader, Mr Vuk Draskovic, said Mr Milosevic, who invited in the OSCE team, had "made a deal" with the international community.
"News from Milosevic's cabinet came out today that he has already made a deal with the international community to recognise November 17th election results in all disputed cities except Belgrade, where the voting would be repeated," Mr Draskovic said.
Mr Milosevic's wife accused the opposition yesterday of trying to spark civil war. "We are hearing in Serbia calls to violence and the type of violence which will inevitably end in a civil war," Ms Mira Markovic wrote in her regular column in the bi-monthly magazine Duga.
During yesterday's protests, a massive police presence prevented demonstrators from occupying the Brotherhood and Unity bridge, a key symbol in Tito's Yugoslavia, but the protest achieved the result the students were seeking - halting traffic over the river.
A group of 500 police prevented students from occupying a second bridge, and also barred them from a third. The bridges link the old city to districts built after the second World War.
The move prompted the student spokesman, Mr Dusan Vasiljevic, to "thank the interior ministry for doing our job. We are glad to see that the police have agreed with our claims and have blocked the bridge."
More than 16,000 demonstrators filled the streets on Thursday in a carnival mood, as opposition leaders organised a celebration of the Orthodox Christian feast of Saint Nicholas with traditional cakes, candles and red wine.