BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- An ultranationalist Serbian government minister resigned Tuesday to protest her

party leader's handling of the Kosovo crisis.

Rada Trajkovic, the minister for family affairs, told reporters she was stepping down because of a dispute with

Vojislav Seselj, the deputy premier of Serbia, the dominant republic of Yugoslavia.

Trajkovic, who is a member of Seselj's Serbian Radical Party, alleged he had established a ``dictatorship,'' and had

other disagreements with party leaders. She didn't elaborate.

It was not clear whether she was resigning from the party as well.

Seselj denied any rifts within his party, which is part of the ruling coalition with Yugoslav president Slobodan

Milosevic's Socialists and the neo-communists of Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic.

The outspoken Seselj has been voicing anti-Western views and has consistently demanded a tougher line against

ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, southern Serbia. He was also instrumental in a recent government purge of independent

media.

He has supported Milosevic, however, in accepting a U.S.-brokered agreement for Kosovo, a deal strongly criticized

by other ultranationalists.

Trajkovic told independent B 92 radio that all she cared about was the freedom of her Serb people in Kosovo.

Trajkovic, a psychiatrist and native of Kosovo, was considered crucial in boosting Seselj's popularity among Kosovo

Serbs.

(...)

AP-NY-11-17-98 1256EST