BELGRADE, Serbia-Serbia's presidential elections, which will pit the pro-Western incumbent against a pro-Russian ultranationalist, will be held in January, the parliament speaker announced Wednesday.

The first round of the vote was set for Jan. 20, and a runoff if required will be held Feb. 3, Oliver Dulic said.

The current president, Boris Tadic, and the leader of the ultranationalists, Tomislav Nikolic, both have announced they will run in the vote, considered crucial to whether Serbia will continue to integrate with the West or return to its isolationist past.

Several other candidates are also expected to take part, but Tadic and Nikolic, who are running neck and neck in pre-election polls, are considered the front-runners.

The outcome of the vote will also determine how Serbia will react to the possible secession of Kosovo province, expected early next year. Nikolic has pledged a fierce response, while Tadic has promised that Serbia would not use force but would try to keep the ethnic Albanian-dominated province by diplomatic means.

The United States and EU nations have urged the Kosovo Albanians to wait with their planned declaration of independence until after the Serbian presidential elections, fearing that a hasty declaration of statehood would jeopardize Tadic's chances of winning the vote.

However, Kosovo's president Fatmir Sejdiu declared Wednesday that the province was a "few days away" from becoming independent. He did not specify a date.

The timing of the vote is also expected to shake Serbia's coalition government, with nationalist supporters of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica voicing their opposition to the January ballot. They have said that the vote and the pre-election campaign would jeopardize much-needed national unity as Serbia struggles to keep Kosovo.

Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia said that calling the elections without their consent breached the coalition agreement with Tadic's Democratic Party, according to a statement.

Kostunica's party said it would respond after the key United Nations Security Council session on Dec. 19, which is to focus on Kosovo following the failure of international talks on the region's status, the state Tanjug news agency said.

Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic, Tadic's ally, dismissed accusations from Kostunica's party, saying the coalition deal envisaged that the elections be called after the end of Kosovo talks on Dec. 10.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations, backed by NATO troops, since the alliance's 1999 bombing campaign to end a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. Serbia has rejected phased-in, supervised statehood for Kosovo, while Kosovo Albanians, who represent 90 percent of the province's 2 million people, want nothing short of independence.