Serbian police disarm man at president's office

By Aleksandar Vasovic

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbian police disarmed a man with two hand grenades who had threatened to blow himself up at the entrance to the office of Serbian President Boris Tadic, a senior police source said on Thursday.

The man, Dragan Maric, 57, became trapped in a three-metre square sealed-off area between two entrance doors, one of them armoured. A lengthy stand-off with police followed.

"He's arrested. It's over," the senior police source told Reuters. "The bomb has been safely taken away from him after five hours of negotiations."

The police took away a grenade which had the safety pin pulled out, after seizing the other grenade earlier.

Tadic played host to U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden at the same building on Wednesday. Biden left Belgrade earlier on Thursday for Kosovo.

Maric had given multiple warnings that he would carry out an attack.

"The man came to the entrance normally used by journalists and citizens who come to visit the building," said the president's press aide Jasmina Stojanov.

Maric gave the government a 1400 GMT deadline to respond to his request for an "out-of-court settlement" to what media said was a property dispute. The deadline passed without incident as police negotiators tried to persuade Maric to give himself up.