document: The republic of Slovenia plans to begin work on a constitution that will give it full sovereignty within a new Yugoslav confederation , the state Tanjug news agency reported Monday . Slovenia , whose 2 million inhabitants account for a fraction of Yugoslavia 's total population of 23 million , is the most politically liberal and prosperous of the country 's six member republics . Slovenia `` should be set up as a sovereign state , with all attributes of factual authority and with full international-legal rights , '' Tanjug said , quoting from a declaration of the Slovenian presidency , the top local ruling body . The Slovenian move was endorsed by Slovenia 's president , Milan Kucan , who told a Monday session of the presidency that the new constitution will be the `` constitution of the sovereign state of Slovenia , and not of one of the federal -LRB- republics -RRB- , '' Tanjug said . The proposal is to be discussed by Slovenia 's parliament in mid-July , Kucan said . Its approval is viewed as almost certain . Slovenia has been frequently accused by politicians and the media in Yugoslavia 's more conservative southern republics , and particularly in the country 's largest republic of Serbia , of harboring separatist tendencies and of protecting its own interests at the expense of federal goals . Slovenian authorities claim Serbia is trying to politically and economically dominate the Yugoslav federation by introducing greater federal control and by limiting the autonomy of the republics . More than 70 percent of the residents of the northern republic believe their region might be better off if it were outside the Yugoslav federation , results of a public opinion poll said last March . Only 15 percent of the Slovenes surveyed expressed their wish for Slovenia to remain a republic within Yugoslavia in the present form . Both Slovenia and Croatia , the two Yugoslav republics that held free elections this year , have proclaimed a readiness to turn the Yugoslav federation of six republics and two provinces into a looser confederation of states cooperating voluntarily . Also Monday , Serbia 's president Slobodan Milosevic , in a speech to the Serbian parliament , said the new constitution Serbia is preparing is designed to `` offset the transformation of federal Yugoslavia into a confederation . ''
extractive_keyphrases: full sovereignty new yugoslav confederation slovenian presidency separatist tendencies federal goals yugoslav federation federal control milan kucan serbia