Belgrade  - Belgrade's city council deadlocked Monday over who should run the Serbian capital after a bid by hardline nationalists faltered, raising the possibility of renewed elections.

City council members met for the first time since Serbia's May 11 general election, but failed to elect a president - the first step toward forming a new government for the city of 1.6 million.

If the city council fails to elect a president by July 22, new local elections loom.

Last weekend, the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists (SPS) backed away from a deal to govern Belgrade with the opposition ultra-nationalist Radicals (SRS) and former Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS).

The deal was sealed shortly after the May poll, but the Socialists reneged after switching sides in June to form a national government with pro-European forces led by President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party.

Neither of the two main blocs has enough votes to form a majority in the city council and elect a mayor.

Tadic's party is seeking to persuade the Socialists to join them and the Liberal Democratic Party - which fiercely criticizes the SPS over its past - to run the city, while the opposition want new elections. (dpa)