Contact Group representatives open Kosovo talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - A new effort is due to begin to find a solution to the long-term political status of Kosovo.



Envoys from the United States, the European Union and Russia will arrive in Belgrade for talks with Serbian political leaders.



They will then travel to Kosovo for talks with ethnic Albanian leaders.



The UN Security Council failed last month to find consensus on the Serbian province's future. Its majority ethnic Albanian population wants independence.



The troika will visit Belgrade and hold talks with political leaders, including Serbia's president and prime minister.



The EU representative of the troika, the German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, said they would not be making any new proposals, but would be seeing whether the Serbian and Kosovo-Albanian sides had any chance of finding agreement over the long-term status of Kosovo.



"I think, at this stage, let's get through this 120 days. The position of the United States is clear. President Bush announced it in Tirana, as you've noted. That position is not going to change, we stand firmly beside it. But the task immediately ahead is to get the two parties to lay out their final ideas, proposals, suggestions, and bring this matter to a conclusion before December 10," said U.S. envoy Frank Wisner. Nations can become independent without permission of the UN Security Council, he noted.



Ethnic Albanians want Kosovo to become independent. Serbs want the province to remain a part of Serbia.



A UN proposal to provide a form of supervised independence was blocked at the UN Security Council last month by Russia, which is a close ally of Serbia.



The current round of talks is due to end in December, but Serbia and Russia have said there should be no time limit.



International officials in Kosovo have expressed concern that if the issue is not resolved in the near future, the security situation in the province could deteriorate.



Many believe the talks chaired by the troika could be the last opportunity to find an agreement between the two sides.