No deal at Kosovo talks hands world the problem

UNITED NATIONS - Mediators on Kosovo's future dumped the problem on a divided international community on Friday, saying that rigid positions on sovereignty over the Serbian province had foiled agreement in four months of talks.

Their report to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made no recommendations on a way forward, making it almost certain the ethnic Albanian majority in breakaway Kosovo will go ahead with plans to declare independence early next year.

Key Western countries are expected to accept that move, but it is vigorously opposed by Serbia and by its ally Russia, which holds a veto in the Security Council. The council will discuss the mediators' report on December 19.

In their report, made available to Reuters by diplomats, the so-called "troika" of mediators from the United States, Russia and the European Union said the talks between the Kosovo Albanians and Serbia's government had been useful. Both sides had pledged to refrain from violence, threats or intimidation.

"Both parties must be reminded that their failure to live up to these commitments will affect the achievement of the European future that they both seek," it said.

But, it said: "The parties were unable to reach agreement on the final status of Kosovo. Neither party was willing to cede its position on the fundamental question of sovereignty over Kosovo."

The mediators -- Frank Wisner of the United States, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko of Russia and Wolfgang Ischinger of Germany -- had already made no secret of the failure of the talks to cut a deal, an outcome widely predicted in the West.

The four months of talks were held at Russian insistence after Moscow blocked a Security Council resolution that would have cleared the way for independence. They had been up against a December 10 deadline but, given the deadlock, ended last week.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since a 1999 NATO bombing campaign to halt killings and ethnic cleansing by Serb forces against the 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority in the province.

In Brussels, NATO nations pledged on Friday to provide enough troops to put down any violence as Kosovo heads toward a declaration of independence. In a minor incident reported on Friday, Kosovo Serbs angry at Western support for independence, scuffled with NATO security officers at a village meeting.

Meanwhile, Britain, France, Germany and Italy urged fellow European Union states in a letter to accept that negotiations on Kosovo's future had been exhausted and the time had come to settle its status -- without U.N. backing, if necessary.

'SLIPPERY SLOPE'

In a separate move that drew immediate fire from Russia, NATO countries agreed that their 16,000 KFOR peacekeepers could stay in Kosovo on the basis of their existing U.N. mandate, even after independence.

"KFOR shall remain in Kosovo on the basis of U.N. Security Council resolution 1244, unless the Security Council decides otherwise," NATO ministers said in a communique.

Washington and most EU states are likely to recognize a declaration of independence by Kosovo and are confident its leaders will wait until around late January to enable NATO and the European Union to prepare for it.

"There is still a lot of work to do to make sure we have full commitment to the principles embodied in the Ahtisaari plan," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said of a U.N. blueprint for independence by special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, which has security provisions for Kosovo's Serbs.

The agreement that Security Council resolution 1244 can justify NATO's presence in Kosovo even after independence is crucial, as several nations such as Germany had harboured doubts over whether it could continue to apply.

Russia has not made clear whether it will challenge such an application of the resolution. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed it as potentially undermining basic standards of international law.

"Anybody who goes in contravention to those is on a very slippery downward slope and it certainly won't help the rest of us in Europe," he said after brief talks with NATO counterparts, referring to concerns it could encourage other separatist moves.

At the United Nations, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the negotiations, even though unsuccessful, had been a "worthwhile exercise" producing "serious results," and Moscow would urge the Security Council that they should carry on.

"When the time comes to consider the troika report in the Security Council, Russia will be arguing in favour of continuing the negotiation," Churkin said. Western countries are virtually certain to reject that proposal.

Churkin said Serbia had made concessions but he admitted that Belgrade had not been willing to surrender sovereignty -- the essence of the Kosovo Albanian demands.