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PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro — The leader of Montenegro’s anti-independence faction refused to concede defeat Sunday after a referendum in which an independent monitoring group said voters favored secession from the republic’s union with much larger Serbia.

Predrag Bulatovic said results had to be confirmed by the state referendum commission. "An arbitrary estimate by a monitoring group must not and cannot destabilize Montenegro,” he said.

The Center for Monitoring said 56 percent of voters opted for independence for their small Balkan republic, one point above the threshold that the European Union said was needed to make secession valid.

Independence supporters spilled into the streets in celebration, firing guns into the air and setting off fireworks.

Kuwait ruler dissolves parliament, calls for early elections

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait’s ruler dissolved parliament Sunday and called early elections amid a dispute between the government and lawmakers over electoral reform.

Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah ordered parliamentary elections held June 29. They originally were scheduled for summer 2007.

The emir’s move was the latest example of the stormy relationship between Kuwait’s parliament and ruling family as it tries to respond to demands for greater democracy.

Sunday’s move was the fourth time an emir dissolved parliament since it was created in 1963 — at times leaving the country without a legislature for years. Each of the previous times, dissolution has come after lawmakers became too critical in attempts to remove government ministers.

The constitution requires that elections be held within two months of dissolving parliament — a rule that was followed in 1999 and which the emir’s announcement Sunday aims to uphold. But it was more than four years before elections were held after parliament was disbanded in 1979 and more than six after it was dissolved in 1986.

Parliament, where Islamists and conservative tribal lawmakers hold considerable influence, also has resisted the ruling family on some major pieces of legislation. For example, for years they held up laws giving women the right to vote, although the emir refrained from dissolving the body and eventually pushed the bill through last year.<