Capital is awash with whispers that President's family has fled

Belgrade was awash with rumours yesterday, one being that Mira Markovic, the wife of the embattled president Slobodan Milosevic and the couple's children, daughter Marija and son Marko, had already fled the country.

Belgrade was awash with rumours yesterday, one being that Mira Markovic, the wife of the embattled president Slobodan Milosevic and the couple's children, daughter Marija and son Marko, had already fled the country.

Mladjan Dinkic, a leading economist, said in a radio interview that "some top officials" of the regime had left, without naming them. "They left the electoral commission to re-model the will of people who voted," he said. According to him, they have large amounts of money stashed in foreign bank accounts.

At the same time, cracks began appearing in the once solid edifice of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). SPS officials' lips remain sealed, but the country's independent media carried news of the resignation of the unsuccessful parliamentary candidate, Milan Beko, from his post as head of the Zastava car factory. Mr Beko was a Yugoslav minister without portfolio. Well-informed sources say the regime is now frantically trying to prevent an avalanche of resignations of top SPS officials, who, contrary to official claims, realise that Mr Milosevic was indeed defeated at the polls on Sunday.

Uncertainty remains over how the Socialist People's Party (SNP) of Montenegro - headed by federal prime minister Momir Bulatovic, loyal to Milosevic - will react. SNP sympathisers took part in the federal elections, which were boycotted by Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic's party. But there are signs of possible defections from the party's ranks.

"Some SNP officials contacted us on Monday morning, the day after the elections," said Cedomir Jovanovic, spokesman for the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS). "The initiative came from the SN, side. Maybe we could bridge the differences in our basic programmes."

With 28 SNP MPs in the federal parliament and 59 of its own, the DOS would be able to form a government. Mr Milosevic's party has 44 MPs in the 138-member house.

The government and opposition are not disputing the election result, but there are unverified reports of splits in the military. However, Momcilo Perisic, a former chief of staff of the Yugoslav Army and now a DOS official, said he received the congratulations of "many active colleagues" when the results of the sweeping victory claimed by the DOS became public. Mr Perisic was sacked by President Milosevic two years ago.

"The opposition victory has had a really big influence on many people in the army, but also in the police forces," said Mr Perisic.