EU Could Accept Brief Delay in Kosovo Talks

Serbia asked for a 10-day delay in Serb-Albanian talks, due to start in Vienna next Tuesday to allow the country to form a new parliament.

A brief delay in a final round of U.N.-mediated talks on the future of Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo would be acceptable to the European Union, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Wednesday.

Serbia has asked for a 10-day delay in Serb-Albanian talks, due to start in Vienna next Tuesday, to allow the country to convene a new parliament elected two weeks ago.

"Anything that is reasonable as far as time, can be acceptable," Solana said in Kosovo. "Maybe a week or something like that."

Solana said Serbia should use the time to convene parliament and renew the mandate of its Kosovo negotiating team. Belgrade has said that without a renewed mandate, no officials could legitimately represent Serbia in the Vienna talks.

"I don't think we should risk credibility for a question of a week," Solana said. "We want them to get engaged and move the proposal ahead."

U.N. Kosovo mediator Martti Ahtisaari last Friday unveiled a plan which sets Kosovo, whose population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, on the path to independence.

NATO wrested control of the province from Serbia in 1999 to halt slaughter and ethnic cleansing in a counter-guerrilla war. Serbia opposes independence, offering the Kosovo Albanians "substantial autonomy", which they reject.

The six-power Contact Group on Kosovo already postponed Ahtisaari's plan once last November in order to avoid inflaming nationalist passions in the Serbian general election on Jan 21.

 

Reuters