The structure of the potent selective mGlu(5) ligand, SP203 (1, 3-fluoro-5-[[2-(fluoromethyl)thiazol-4-yl]ethynyl]benzonitrile), was modified by replacing the 2-fluoromethyl substituent with an amino or halo substituent and by variation of substituents in the distal aromatic ring to provide a series of new high-affinity mGlu(5) ligands. In this series, among the most potent ligands obtained, the 2-chloro-thiazoles 7a and 7b and the 2-fluorothiazole 10b showed subnanomolar mGlu(5) affinity. 10b also displayed >10000-fold selectivity over all other metabotropic receptor subtypes plus a wide range of other receptors and binding sites. The 2-fluorothiazoles 10a and 10b were labeled using [(18)F]fluoride ion (t(1/2) = 109.7 min) in moderately high radiochemical yield to provide potential radioligands that may resist troublesome radiodefluorination during the imaging of brain mGlu(5) with position emission tomography. The iodo compound 9b has nanomolar affinity for mGlu(5) and may also serve as a lead to a potential (123)I-labeled ligand for imaging brain mGlu(5) with single photon emission computed tomography.