Italy Says No Hurry For Kosovo Solution

There should be no rush to solve the future of Kosovo, Italy's foreign minister said on Thursday.

There should be no rush to solve the future of Kosovo, Italy's foreign minister said on Thursday, but he added that the idea of Serbia regaining sovereignty over its breakaway province was "unthinkable".

Days after U.S. President George W. Bush said the time had come to settle the issue and grant the Serbian province independence, Massimo D'Alema said there was still hope that talks could find consensus.

Russia opposes a solution for Kosovo which does not have the agreement of its longtime ally Serbia.

"We're working for a solution based on international law and which is sanctioned by the United Nations ... We have not abandoned this hope," D'Alema told a news conference at Rome's foreign press club.

"We're not worried by the fact that this might need some time. We are not in a particular hurry. It is something that should be done, above all, well. And if 'soon' and 'well' don't go together, 'well' should win out over 'soon'," he said.

The United Nations took control of Kosovo in 1999, after Western powers intervened to halt the killing and expulsion of Albanians by Serb forces fighting separatist guerrillas.

The 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority among some 2 million people are growing impatient of the political limbo in Kosovo which they blame for the poverty there. They say Belgrade has lost all moral right to the province.

The European Union resumed talks with Serbia on Wednesday for its possible future membership of the bloc, something Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica welcomed, saying the EU should also drop its support for the independence of Kosovo.

Recognising Serbia as a partner should also mean the EU accepts "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia", he said, a reference to his country's claim over Kosovo.

D'Alema said that while issues such as the rights of the Serb minority in Kosovo and the future of sites there considered sacred by Serbs should be dealt with sensitively, the idea of Serbia regaining sovereignty over Kosovo was "unthinkable".

"If it's unthinkable to have Serb sovereignty and at the same time they don't want independence for Kosovo, then what do they want? That the status quo go on indefinitely? That U.N. forces remain indefinitely in the Balkans? That doesn't seem to me to be in anyone's interests," he said.