Podgorica - Montenegrin authorities aim to hold early elections in March, local media reported Tuesday.

The government asked the Parliament to shorten its mandate and thus make way for the president Filip Vujanovic to call for early elections on March 29, daily Vijesti reported.

The government said that Montenegro faces numerous and important decisions in a process of joining the European Union and that this process needs to be implemented fully "by the organs and institutions and especially the government and parliament with full four year mandate".

The current government's mandate expires in 2010, but a 2007 agreement set September 2009 as the date for the next elections.

The opposition says the main reason for the early elections is crisis inside the ruling coalition, as well as the fact that the government has no idea how to deal with the global economic crisis.

Montenegro applied for the candidacy in the European Union in December. The tiny Adriatic country separated from Serbia in 2006. (dpa)