Russian diplomat attacks US over Balkans

Kosovo:The Russian member of a troika of diplomats that is brokering talks between Belgrade and Kosovo broke rank yesterday and denounced US policy on the region.

His attack on Washington and its European Union allies came as the three envoys appeared to resign themselves to the failure of negotiations, and Serbia warned of a Balkan calamity if Kosovo declared independence as expected next month.

"The Americans believe that Kosovo's separation (from Serbia) has already taken place de facto. We look at the situation from the point of view of international law, not pseudo-reality," said Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko.

He also accused several unnamed western countries of undermining talks between Serb and Kosovar leaders by assuming that the province's independence was inevitable. "Mildly speaking, this does not help Serbian-Albanian dialogue," he complained.

Another round of talks ended this week without success, with Belgrade refusing to offer more than broad autonomy to a region whose 90 per cent ethnic Albanian majority demands an immediate declaration of full independence after December 10th, when the diplomatic troika is due to report to the United Nations.

A final meeting is due to take place in Austria next week, but a negotiated solution now seems almost unimaginable.

"After 100 days, we have explored almost every humanly known option for squaring off the circle of the status question," said EU envoy Wolfgang Ischinger. "It has not been window-dressing. It has been a sincere, intense, comprehensive and genuine negotiating process," he insisted.

However, Serbia and Russia accuse the US and major EU powers of sabotaging the talks by making December 10th a false deadline for a final decision.

Kosovo's leaders say they will move towards a declaration of independence immediately after that date, albeit in co-ordination with Washington and Brussels, the latter of which is preparing to send 1,800 EU officials and police to oversee the region.

Belgrade and Moscow say sovereignty for two million-strong Kosovo would not only prompt the immediate departure of almost all its 120,000 Serbs, but embolden other ethnic Albanian separatists in Macedonia and Serbia's Presevo Valley.

"If the independence of Kosovo is recognised, it would not be the final stage of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, but the first stage of new disintegration and secession in the Balkans," said Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic.