Nikolic started his first visit to Brussels as Serbia's president with a meeting with the High Representative for the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton.

"I believe I have convinced Mrs Ashton that I'm not even considering a possibility that there is a better future for Serbia outside the EU membership," Nikolic said.

Nikolic said that despite the problems with forming a new government, Serbia was trying to do as much as possible to receive the recommendation for launching its entry talks by year's end.

After he was elected president, the European Union called on Nikolic to renew efforts to bring Serbia closer to the bloc. Serbia was granted a candidate status in March and one of the conditions for launching the entry talks is a visible and permanent improvement of relations with Kosovo.

Nikolic reiterated "if it were up to me, Serbia would never recognise Kosovo's independence."

Nikolic said he had proposed that in the future, talks with Kosovo be led by Serbia's prime minister.

"Belgrade, Pristina and Brussels have different interpretations of the course of the talks so far. I asked them to finally brief me about the implementation of these talks, about the EU position and about what has really been agreed under its auspices. I also presented my idea to have the talks from now on led by Serbia's prime minister," Nikolic said, adding that it was not good to have these talks led by public servants as they bear no responsibility after that and then "they interpret what has been agreed differently than the other side".

He said that intensive cooperation was agreed on the solving of the Kosovo issue, so as to secure peace and security for all citizens, notably in northern Kosovo, and to prevent all unilateral moves by any side which would threaten peace and security.

Nikolic called on the EU to help Serbia more economically and socially, because without that help "Serbia may never be able to achieve standards necessary for EU membership."