Serbia, Kosovo due for key talks

SERBIA: The prime ministers of Serbia and Kosovo have outlined diametrically opposed plans for the future of the mostly Albanian province ahead of key talks on its final status.

The UN Security Council was expected to approve the start of negotiations last night on whether Kosovo's Albanian majority would be granted their wish of independence from Serbia.

Serbia's troops were driven from the region in 1999 by Nato bombardment.

"There definitely cannot be any conditions or new interim phases since they are obstructing economic progress," said Kosovo's prime minister Bajram Kosumi.

He added that he expected a long-term international "observation or advisory" mission to monitor the region as a "guarantee for ethnic groups that their rights are observed".

"But Kosovo must be an independent and sovereign state," Mr Kosumi insisted.

That view stood in stark contrast to that of Vojislav Kostunica, the moderate nationalist who is the prime minister of Serbia.

"It is an unthinkable precedent, and any imposed solution that would seize part of our territory would be a violation of international law," Mr Kostunica declared before heading to the UN Security Council session in New York.

But while he is thought to be willing to offer broad autonomy to Kosovo, full independence would be almost impossible to justify to ordinary Serbs, many of whom see Kosovo as the historic heartland of their nation and Orthodox faith.

Mr Kostunica's adviser, Vladeta Jankovic, appealed to Serbs not to get "depressed or madly aggressive" over the threatened loss of a territory that is now home to a 90 per cent Albanian majority.

"The situation is difficult but not hopeless," Mr Jankovic added.

"We'll insist on preserving the existing borders and the security of the Serbian population [in Kosovo]."

The UN has run Kosovo since 1999, but has seen most Serbs flee the province in fear of retaliation from Albanian gangs, and most of those who remain live in heavily- guarded ghettos.

Riots in March last year underlined the volatility of the region, and 19 people were killed and Serb villages and churches attacked.

Serbs insist their rights are not being protected and say independence for Kosovo would be a reward for armed rebellion.

However, the region's ethnic Albanians insist they will safeguard minority rights and make Kosovo a peaceful, democratic state.