Not many presidential rallies kick off with a Eurovision Song Contest winner and a defiant message from a war crimes suspect.

Both are folk heroes in Serbia and both were cheered by 25,000 flag-waving nationalists in Belgrade's central arena for the final rally of the country's closely fought election campaign.

Their candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, is running neck and neck with his pro-EU rival Boris Tadic in a race seen as a referendum on whether Serbia continues to face West or embraces nationalism and Russia.

With the Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo on the brink of declaring independence - to the horror of many Serbs - Mr Nikolic has skilfully harnessed wounded national pride to give himself a real chance of winning in Sunday's vote.

“Why do we have such bad relations with the EU that they are against Kosovo being part of Serbia?” he asked in a TV debate between the candidates. “If it was not for the Russian Federation we would have a lot of problems. I want to open a wide road towards the Russian Federation.”

A high-level delegation from the EU visited Serbia this week to promise a relaxation of visa restrictions and other carrots in what many saw as a blatant attempt to influence voters. At the same time Mr Nikolic was in Moscow receiving pledges of investment and support over Kosovo.

Mr Tadic, the President since 2004, has struggled to keep the issue of joining the EU separate from the status of Kosovo, given the signals from many European capitals that they will recognise independence straight away.

“Nobody wants to join the EU as a formality, they do it to become a much better place,” Mr Tadic said in the TV debate. “We want to be a respected nation in Europe, not a nation that has been accused of crimes.” This was a reference to war crimes charges against Vojislav Seselj, the nationalist leader on trial in The Hague, and wartime leaders still on the run, Radovan Karadic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, and army chief Ratko Mladic.

For many Serbs, however, they remain legendary figures whose appeal is increasing as disenchantment grows with the democrats who took power after the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

So when Mr Nikolic's rally opened with patriotic folk songs performed by Serbia's version of Dolly Parton, it was no surprise that the most enthusiastic welcome was given to a ballad called Brother Radovan, the cave is hiding you. Later, the Eurovision-winning entry, Prayer, by Marija Serifovic found new meaning as a nationalist hymn.

After a series of speeches came the defiant message from Vojislav Seselj, who is being tried on charges of torture, ethnic cleansing and inciting extermination. “Boris Tadic told people that he has friends among the Russians but his only friends are among the Europeans who hate Serbia and want to take our territory,” he said in a letter read to the braying crowd.

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