Serbia, Kosovo talks almost mission impossible

Pahor and Kosor decided in January to organise the conference aimed at speeding up the EU integration of Balkan states.

LJUBLJANA, March 12, 2010 (AFP) - Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor said Thursday he hoped to succeed in getting the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo together to attend an EU-Balkans summit in Slovenia on March 20.

He said the attempt to bring the two sides together was "to a certain extent a mission impossible".

"But there are many that believe that if someone can do it, it is us. But our success is not granted, we are working on it," Pahor told journalists.

Pahor and his Croatian counterpart Jadranka Kosor decided in January to organise the conference aimed at speeding up the EU integration of Balkan states wishing to join the bloc.

It would be the first meeting of all political leaders of the Balkans in the last two decades.

The two prime ministers hope to convince the leaders of Serbia to participate at the conference along with officials from Kosovo, a former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008.

Serbia boycotts all international meetings where Pristina's leaders are invited as state representatives and attends only those at which the Kosovo officials are present under the United Nations' administration (UNMIK) flag.

But Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said on Monday he would attend the summit in Slovenia only as a representative of the newly-declared state.

"I think we will succeed at the end," Pahor said, adding he had talked earlier on Thursday with EU President Herman Van Rompuy about the conference and he was in touch with Kosor and other European leaders daily.

"If we fail, the question is what results will the Butmir process (for a constitutional reform of Bosnia) produce and what will be the destiny of the Balkans," Pahor said.