Serbia wants Kosovo talks to continue past December deadline

16/10/2007

The Kosovo status talks should be allowed to continue beyond December 10th since Belgrade and Pristina are unlikely to agree on a solution by then, a senior Serbian official said Monday.

(Blic - 16/10/07; Reuters, AP, Euobserver, RFE/RL, BIRN, B92, RIA Novosti, NATO, Serbian government - 15/10/07; AFP, DPA, Beta, BIRN, - 14/10/07)

"The mediators proposed that an extended meeting could be held at our final get-together if they determine that there is enough common ground to warrant it," Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said.

Belgrade and Pristina are unlikely to agree on a mutually acceptable solution to the Kosovo status issue by December 10th, a Serbian official said Monday (October 15th), calling for the continuation of talks beyond the UN-set deadline for the conclusion of the process.

"Nobody can expect a positive outcome by December 10th, in terms of finding a solution," Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said in Brussels. "The most positive outcome would be if we see there is the possibility to continue."

His remarks came a day after senior Serbian and Kosovo Albanian officials met for a fresh round of face-to-face talks on Kosovo's future in the Belgian capital on Sunday.

The discussions focused on the proposals tabled by the two parties during their meeting in New York on September 28th, the EU-US-Russian troika mediating the negotiations said in a statement following the talks.

"Belgrade further described its proposal of autonomy for Kosovo within Serbia. Pristina elaborated its proposal of friendship and co-operation between two independent states and full implementation of minority rights," the mediators said. "Both parties asked questions and responded to each others' proposals."

While each party rejected the other's offer, they agreed to meet again in Vienna on October 22nd, when the three envoys -- EU representative Wolfgang Ischinger, US Ambassador Frank Wisner, and Russian diplomat Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko -- are expected to present a working paper with topics the Belgrade and Pristina officials could discuss.

"We must get them to recognise the fact that they are still too far and there is still quite a distance to be covered if really we want to get to an agreement," Ischinger told reporters late Sunday. "This distance will also require some painful decisions by one or by both sides."

Nearly 20 months since the launch of the process of determining Kosovo's final status, Belgrade and Pristina remain entrenched in their positions on the issue. The Kosovo Albanians, who make up 90% of the province's population of 2 million people, insist on gaining full independence from Serbia, while Belgrade says all it can offer is broad autonomy.

The three envoys have been mediating negotiations since August on behalf of the six-nation Contact Group, comprising Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States. They pledged in their statement on Sunday to "work with the parties to identify areas of common perspective that might open a path to a solution".

With less than two months until the December 10th deadline set by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the conclusion of the talks, they are planning to pursue "an intensive schedule of face-to-face meetings" following the next round of talks on October 22nd.

"If there is movement forward ... we might even have a conference-type meeting," the AP quoted Ischinger as saying on Sunday.

Rejecting any possibility for a Dayton-type of a peace conference, Samardzic insisted that time pressure would undermine the efforts to reach a deal.

"We need time to talk," he said Monday in Brussels at a conference organised by a Serbian think-tank. "If we start to speak as two delegations about our legitimate problems we need more time. If there is an idea to come to a compromise, we need more time," he added.

Frustrated by the delay of a solution, the Kosovo Albanians have threatened to take things in their own hands and declare independence on, or shortly after, December 10th.

Some Western countries have made it clear they would recognise an independent Kosovo, even if it is not backed by a UN Security Council decision.