Now comprising only Serbia with 77,474 sq km (48,033 sq miles) and Montenegro with 13,812 sq km (5331 sq miles), respectively the largest and smallest of the former republics, Yugoslavia officially covers 91,286 sq km (56,597 sq miles), or 40% of the territory of the former federation (255,804 sq km/98,766 sq miles).

Together, Serbia (excluding the Kosovo region) and Montenegro, respectively the most and least populous of the ex-Yugoslav republics, have an estimated total population of 8,437,830 or around 45% of the population of the former Yugoslav federation (1991).

92.4 per sq km.

Belgrade (Beograd).

1,168,454 (1991).

Roughly rectangular in shape and on a major European communications axis north–west and south–east, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia borders Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, the Kosovo region and Albania to the south, Bosnia-Herzegovina to the west and Croatia to the northwest. Serbia is dominated by the flat, fertile farmland of the Danube and Tisza valleys. The scenery varies from rich Alpine valleys, vast fertile plains and rolling green hills to bare, rocky gorges as much as 1140m (3800ft) deep, thick forests and gaunt limestone mountain regions. Belgrade, the capital of the new Federal Republic, lies on the Danube. Montenegro is a small mountainous region on the Adriatic coast north of Albania, bordering on Bosnia-Herzegovina to the west. Its small Adriatic coastline comprises the main ports of Bar and those in the Gulf of Kotor.

Federal Republic since 1992. First gained independence as The 'Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes' in 1918 from the Austro-Hungarian Empire; renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. Head of State: President Slobodan Miloševic since 1997. Head of Government: Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, seit 1998. The Kosovo region is now administered by the UN.

The official language is Serbo-Croat, in its Serbian form, which uses the Cyrillic script. Albanian and Hungarian are also spoken in the autonomous regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina respectively.

70% Eastern Orthodox Serbs, with a large Muslim ethnic Albanian minority (especially in the province of Kosovo) and a small Roman Catholic ethnic Serbian minority (mainly located in the province of Vojvodina).

GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Sunday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).

220 volts AC, 50Hz.