International organizations and some European countries on Monday welcomed the outcome of a referendum in Montenegro, which saw citizens of the tiny republic vote in favor of independence from Serbia.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) hailed the conduct of the referendum as being in line with democratic standards.

"Overall the referendum was conducted in line with OSCE, Council of Europe and other international standards for democratic electoral process," said Nedzat Yalcintas, a member of the Turkish parliament who was leading OSCE's short-term observation mission in Montenegro.

He said the vote "provided a genuine opportunity for the citizens of Montenegro to decide their future state status through a process of direct democracy, ensuring this issue could be resolved in a peaceful and legitimate manner."

In Brussels, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana welcomed the "successful" independence referendum and pledged that the EU would fully respect the outcome of the vote.

"I want to congratulate the Montenegrin people for the successful referendum that took place yesterday," Solana told a news briefing.

"We are still waiting for the final result, but the official preliminary results appear to say that those who voted 'yes' had a majority -- over the 55 percent," he said.

In its first reaction to the poll, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, called on all sides to respect the final results.

"The commission is pleased to note the preliminary report that the referendum in Montenegro was carried out in a calm manner and with a high turnout, which is important for the legitimacy of the vote," a spokesman added.

On Monday, other Balkan leaders hailed Montenegro's vote for independence as another step towards the recovery of the region after the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.

The result of Sunday's referendum in the tiny mountainous state was "the final act of the dissolution of Yugoslavia," said Agim Ceku, the ethnic Albanian prime minister of Kosovo, whose province is also seeking independence from Serbia.

"Before the end of the year, Kosovo will join Montenegro as a new state and these new countries will be an important factor for the stability of the whole region," Ceku said.

Vlado Buckovski, the prime minister of Macedonia, another former Yugoslav state, also welcomed the vote.

"Yesterday, we were witnesses to the end of the Yugoslav project, which was created a long time ago with good intentions. We welcome the will of the Montenegrins," he said after a meeting in Skopje with visiting Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sander.

In neighboring Albania, Prime Minister Sali Berisha celebrated the referendum result.

"Yesterday's decision made our region freer, more stable and secure on the road toward Euro-Atlantic integration," Berisha said in the northern city of Shkodra, bordering Montenegro.

Preliminary results showed that at least 55.4 percent of the Montenegrin voters supported the Balkan republic's independence from the state union of Serbia-Montenegro, said referendum officials on Monday.

Under conditions mediated by the EU, the independence will not be valid unless the referendum passes the threshold of 55 percent of votes with a turnout of at least half of the mountainous republic's 484,718 registered voters.

Serbia-Montenegro, which was renamed from the Yugoslav federal republic in February 2003, is a loose union with only limited ministries of foreign affairs, defense and human rights. The two republics have different laws, customs, currencies and border services.

Source: Xinhua