The 40-year-old, who also played for the Sacramento Kings, now seems certain to be elected to the role after Ivan Curkovic, the current president, announced he will withdraw from the race.

 

Curkovic, the 64-year-old, a former goalkeeper for Yugoslavia, and manager of the Serbia national team, has pulled out because he has failed to gain the necessary support of five sports.

 

In contrast, Divac already has the backing of athletics, basebell, basketball, rowing and softball.

 

He is also expected to be backed by boxing before the elections are due to be held on February 24, 2009.

 

Divac is one of Serbia's most successful ever sportsmen.

 

At 7ft 1in he played centre and was among the first group of European players to transfer to the NBA in the 1980s when he signed for the Lakers.

 

Divac was a huge success and is one of only three players in the history of the NBA to score 13,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 3,000 assists and 1,500 blocked shots, alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Hakeem Olajuwon.

 

He is due to be honoured by the Kings on March 31 when they retire the number he wore when he played for them.

 

Now a major media figure in Serbia, appearing in several television adverts for a number of products, in October Divac was appointed by the Serbian Government as an adviser for humanitarian issues.

 

From 1920 to 2004 Serbian athletes participated at the Olympics as part of Yugoslavia and then Serbia and Montenegro before finally competing as a wholly independent nation at Beijing earlier this year, where they won three medals, a silver and two bronze.