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Milo Djukanovic began his seventh term of office as Montenegro's prime minister in December 2012, seven weeks after his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) emerged as the main party in parliamentary elections but failed to gain an outright majority for the first time in 11 years.
Mr Djukanovic formed a coalition government with the Social Democrats and representatives of Montenegro's ethnic minorities, and on being inaugurated as prime minister pledged to focus his efforts on fighting organised crime and corruption.
After Croatia, Montenegro is the next of the former republics of Yugoslavia in line to join the European Union, but will have to do more to root out endemic corruption and organised crime if it is to make any progress towards EU membership.
Milo Djukanovic has dominated Montenegrin politics ever since 1991, when he first became prime minister. He was the country's president in 1998-2002, and took further short breaks from the premiership in 2006-8 and 2010-12.
He led Montenegro through the turmoil of the 1990s Balkan wars and spearheaded the postwar quest for independence from Serbia, which was finalized in a referendum in 2006.
The first time that he temporarily stepped down from the premiership was soon after the independence referendum. The second time was in December 2010, when he said that he had achieved his aim of bringing Montenegro closer to EU and NATO membership.
He insisted that his 2010 resignation was not related to international pressure over his alleged involvement in cigarette smuggling. Accusations of crime and corruption have dogged Montenegro's ruling elite since the collapse of Yugoslavia, when the republic became a hub for large-scale tobacco trafficking.
Between 2010 and 2012, Mr Djukanovic remained at the helm of the DPS, while Igor Luksic, a close ally and protege, took over the premiership.
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