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Kosovo moves toward independence, EU close to unity
2007-12-10
Kosovo Albanian leaders said on Monday they will start immediate talks with Western backers towards an independence declaration as the EU came close to unity in support of the province's drive to secede from Serbia. With a United Nations deadline for agreement on the future of the breakaway province expiring on Monday, Russia warned any unilateral recognition could trigger problems around the world. Skender Hyseni, spokesman of Kosovo's "unity team" in the breakaway territory's negotiations with Serbia, said talks with Western powers would start on steps leading to a declaration of independence and subsequent international recognition. Asked to clarify recent speculation on the timing of a declaration, Hyseni said it would be "much earlier than May." In Brussels, where European Union ministers arrived for talks on Kosovo, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told reporters: "There is virtual unity on Kosovo." "Apart from Cyprus, which has enormous problems with this ... all other countries are going in this direction," said Luxembourg's Jean Asselborn. But Russia, which backs Serbia's vehement opposition to independence and wants more negotiations, stepped up warnings of the potential fallout, saying a unilateral declaration could set off a "chain reaction" of problems worldwide. "I want to stress that UDI of Kosovo and recognition of such independence will not remain without consequences," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after meeting the president of Cyprus on Monday. "It will create a chain reaction throughout the Balkans and other areas of the world," he told to reporters in Nicosia after talks with Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos. Cyprus is the only member of the 27-member bloc that is insisting that sovereignty for the Serbian province must be backed by a U.N. resolution, EU ministers said on Monday. The EU's chief mediator, Wolfgang Ischinger, said on arriving to brief ministers that he expected intensive contacts between the EU and the Kosovo Albanians before decisions were taken in Brussels and Pristina. "This is not a matter of many months, but it is also not just a matter of a few days," Ischinger said. Leaders of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority are widely expected to proclaim sovereignty from late January onwards. Serbia, backed by Russia, vehemently opposes independence. UN TO DISCUSS KOSOVO Major powers in the United Nations Security Council are due to debate Kosovo on December 19, but Moscow has already said it will call for more negotiations -- something the United States and the vast majority of EU states think is pointless. Cyprus and to a lesser extent Greece have led a group of doubters within the bloc that at one time numbered half a dozen states concerned either because of their proximity to the Balkans or because of separatist movements on their territory. "We are primarily concentrating on the precedent in international law," Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou Markoullis said on Sunday, asked by reporters whether its concerns were linked to sensitivities over the decades-old dispute between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus. In a report to U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-moon last Friday, mediators from the United States, European Union and Russia said four months of talks had found no compromise on whether Kosovo should be independent or just autonomous. Kosovo has been in legal limbo under U.N. administration since NATO bombing in 1999 pushed Serbian forces out of the province to end ethnic cleansing against ethnic Albanians. EUROPEAN FUTURE British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said NATO might have to reinforce its 16,000-strong KFOR peace force to deal with any outbreaks of violence if tensions spiked between Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanians and its Serb minority. "That is something we might have to address and contingency plans have been put in place," Miliband told BBC Radio. Leaders of the 27-nation bloc are expected to declare at a summit on Friday that negotiations have been exhausted and that the future of both Serbia and Kosovo lies in the EU. The plan is for the EU to take over police and justice tasks from the United Nations and appoint a civilian representative in a supervisory role, while NATO troops remain in place. (Additional reporting by Mark John in Brussels, Michele Kambas in Nicosia and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; editing by Paul Taylor and Ibon Villelabeitia)
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