BELGRADE, Serbia-The Serbian president dissolved the parliament Thursday and called early elections following his rift with nationalists over Kosovo's independence and Serbia's European Union integration.

President Boris Tadic said the vote would be held May 11.

"Elections are a democratic way for the citizens to determine how Serbia should develop in the years to come," Tadic said in a statement.

He said elections offered a "new chance to strengthen ... the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country, to strengthen our economic perspective through European integration ... and change things for the better."

The vote is considered crucial for Serbia because it will determine whether the Balkan country heads toward the EU and other Western groups, or returns to its isolationist past of the 1990s era of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

"Once again, Serbia is to choose on whether to move forward or go backward," said Dragan Bujosevic, a political analyst of independent NIN weekly.

Bujosevic compared the elections to the ones in 2000, which led to Milosevic's ouster.

"Once more we choose between the past and the future," Bujosevic said.

On Saturday, nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica dissolved his government, saying his conservatives could not function in the Cabinet alongside the president's pro-Western Democrats because of their insistence on pursuing EU membership even though 18 of the bloc's 27 nations have recognized Kosovo's independence.

Kostunica insists Serbia must not join the EU unless the bloc confirms Kosovo is part of the country. Tadic refuses to tie the Kosovo issue to Serbia's EU future.

Predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17. Kosovo had been under U.N. control since 1999, when NATO used an air war to stop Milosevic's crackdown on separatists in the territory.

Serbia, which considers Kosovo its historic and religious heartland, has rejected Kosovo's independence move as illegal under international law. Serbia has the backing of Russia and China in the U.N. Security Council.