Zivkovic will press on with reforms by slain predecessor

Serbia's Parliament has made reformer Zoran Zivkovic its new Prime Minister. The move is likely to allay fears of a power vacuum in the volatile Balkans, following last week's assassination of premier Zoran Djindjic. The 250-seat legislature on Tuesday voted, by 128 deputies for and 100 against, to appoint the 42-year-old pro-Western politician as the new premier. Mr Zivkovic, like Mr Djindjic a leading opponent of Slobodan Milosevic in the bloodstained 1990s, told Parliament that police hunting for the assassins had detained more than 750 people in a sweep targeting 155 crime gangs. 'The most important thing for the Serbian government is to find the killers or the inspirers of Zoran Djindjic's murder,' he added. He also promised to push ahead with Western-backed reforms spearheaded by Mr Djindjic. Mr Djindjic was killed by a sniper outside the main government building in Belgrade on March 12, triggering fears of renewed instability in impoverished Serbia.