Southeast Europe.

GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October).

77,474 sq km (35,246 sq miles).

8.3 million (2007 estimate).

108 per sq km.

Belgrade. Population: 1.6 million (2002 census).

Serbia borders Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania to the south, Montenegro to the southwest, Bosnia & Herzegovina to the west and Croatia to the northwest. Northern Serbia is dominated by the flat, fertile farmland of the Danube and Tisa valleys. The scenery varies from rich Alpine valleys, vast fertile plains and rolling green hills to bare, rocky gorges as much as 1,140m (3,800ft) deep, thick forests and gaunt limestone mountain regions. Belgrade, the capital, lies at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers.

Republic since 2006.

President Boris Tadic since 2004.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica since 2004.

Serbia and Montenegro formally declared independence from each other following a May 2006 referendum on independence in Montenegro. Serbia maintains membership of international institutions, including the UN, and is keen to take up EU membership, which looks increasingly likely.

January 2008 elections resulted in an inconclusive victory for nationalists who do not wish to see Kosovo become fully independent. The second round of voting re-elected pro-Western Boris Tadic as President. 

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008; the controversial move was not accepted by all international bodies.

In March 2008, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said his coalition had collapsed and is calling for elections. The move follows his failure to get his cabinet to reject closer ties with the European Union in the wake of Kosovo's declaration of independence. Prime Minister Kostunica, a nationalist, described the decision by EU states to recognise Kosovo as illegal. President Boris Tadic has said he will call elections, but did not set a date for the poll.

Serbian, which uses both Cyrillic and Latin script, Hungarian in the north and some Albanian.

Majority Eastern Orthodox Serbs, with a Muslim ethnic Albanian minority, a Muslim ethnic Slavic minority in the Raska region of the southwest, a Roman Catholic ethnic Serbian and Croatian minority, a Protestant ethnic Hungarian minority (in the province of Vojvodina) and a small Jewish community.

220 volts AC, 50Hz.

Avoid taking pictures of military installations and of obvious bomb damage from 1999, which may cause ill feeling.