KOSOVO TALKS FAIL

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.11.2007 15:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Serbs and ethnic Albanians have failed to resolve the
future status of Kosovo at a final round of internationally-brokered
talks. Both sides stuck to their long-standing positions.

"There has been no agreement with Serbia," Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian
President Fatmir Sejdiu said in Vienna.

The UN had set a deadline for a negotiated settlement on Kosovo for
10 December, when "troika" of international mediators – Russia, EU and
U.S. – is to submit their report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The province’s ethnic Albanians demand independence from Serbia but
Belgrade has rejected this. The UN is eager to avoid fresh conflict
in the region.

Though technically part of Serbia, Kosovo has been administered by
the UN for the last eight years.

Belgrade’s security forces were driven out of Kosovo by a NATO invasion
in 1999, after being accused of the repression of the majority ethnic
Albanian population.

Thousands of UN troops have been deployed in the province to prevent
a return to violence. Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians want the province
to become independent but its Serb minority and the government in
Belgrade have opposed this.

Attempts to decide the final status of Kosovo through negotiations
have failed. Speaking after the breakdown of talks on Wednesday,
Serbian President Boris Tadic said Belgrade would "annul" any
unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo.

Ethnic Albanian leaders had said they would declare independence
unilaterally if the UN’s 10 December deadline for negotiations passed
without agreement, BBC reports.