Igor Lukšić

Montenegro's national assembly should decide on the country's membership in NATO, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Deputy PM Igor Luksic has said.

According to him," that is why there is no reason for the strained relations with Moscow, as the overall context needs to be understood."

Serbia will not support Montenegro's candidate for the post of UN secretary-general, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said.

Montenegro has nominated Igor Luksic, the current deputy prime minister and foreign minister, who served as prime minister from 2010 until 2012.

Joseph Biden has told Milo Djukanovic he is convinced Montenegro will work diligently and successfully complete the process of joining NATO.

Several thousand opponents of the Montenegrin government staged an anti-NATO rally on Saturday in Podorica, shouting "No to NATO" and "Long Live Russia" and demanding a referendum on Montenegro's membership of the alliance.

"We congratulate the government and people for this achievement, this is a very good day for Montenegro, a good day for the Western Balkans and the whole alliance, " NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the foreign ministers North-Atlantic Council meeting on Wednesday in Brussels.

Anti-government protesters will take to the streets of Podgrica again on Sunday, repeating their call for a transition government to replace Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

US Vice-President Joseph Biden told Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic by phone on Monday that Washington supports NATO membership for Montenegro, "provided that Montenegro continues pursuing reforms and boosts popular support" for joining.

The 28-member alliance is due to make a decision on Montenegro's membership in December.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurtz on Friday said recent attacks on journalists in the country were "very regrettable and should not happened".

Speaking after a meeting with Montenegrin Foreign Minister Igor Luksic in Podgorica, he said he had came to Montenegro primarily to meet civil society groups and the media and hear what they have to say.

More than half the senior officials in the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, will be replaced by young activists, the party announced on Thursday.

Montenegro's ruling party congress, scheduled for next week, is expected to reaffirm Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's position as leader and tighten party discipline.

Djukanovic, a former communist, has led Montenegro for almost 25 years. He is seeking his seventh mandate as leader of a party that has been in power without interruption since the beginning of the nineties.