SERBIA: Serbia will reject independence as a solution for Kosovo and will continue to consider the province part of its territory, Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kotunica said in comments published yesterday.
"The policy of Serbia would be to declare that Kosovo is part of Serbia. That's not empty rhetoric, but a constitutional-legal formula," Mr Kotunica said in an interview with the liberal Serb daily Danas.
Such a step would create a Cyprus-style division in the Balkans if Kosovo Albanians clinch the independence diplomats say could come within six months.
"Serbia will reject a solution that takes Kosovo away from Serbia and, very importantly, will continue to consider Kosovo part of its territory," Mr Kotunica said.
Legally part of Serbia, the majority Albanian province has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when Nato bombs drove out Serb forces accused of ethnic cleansing in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.
The 90-per cent ethnic Albanian majority is pushing for independence in direct talks that began in February with the mediation of UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
Western diplomats say the major powers see little alternative to independence, under European Union and Nato supervision for years to come. The West wants a UN Security Council decision within the year, with or without Serb consent.
But Serbia sees Kosovo as its "Jerusalem", still home to 100,000 Serbs and scores of centuries-old Orthodox churches. Threats from the mainly Serb north to partition the province, having already cut off co-operation with the capital, Pristina, are causing concern in the West, which fears the move would revive territorial ambitions among ethnic Albanians in neighbouring southern Serbia and Macedonia.
The deputy UN governor in Kosovo, American Steven Schook, said in a newspaper interview yesterday the major powers were mulling a separate international mission specifically to oversee the integration of the north after a decision on "final status".
The 17,000-strong Nato peace force has already bolstered its presence in the area, which runs adjacent to central Serbia.
It is unclear how much support partition enjoys in Belgrade, but Mr Kotunica distanced himself from the calls of some Serb nationalists for armed resistance to independence.
"Serbia so far has reached only for legal arguments, not force," he said. "That is how it would act in the future."