Serbia told to drop "negative" influence on Kosovo

PRISTINA, Serbia, June 9 (Reuters) Serbia must drop its ''negative'' influence on Serbs in Kosovo and tell them to re-engage with the ethnic Albanian majority, the major powers have said, as a decision nears on the province's fate.

The West holds Belgrade responsible for a Serb boycott of political life in the United Nations-run province, which it says is complicating efforts to decide Kosovo's future this year in U.N.-led talks.

The Contact Group of the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Thursday gave Belgrade a wish list to improve life for the 100,000 Serbs, who U.N. officials fear could quit the province in large numbers in the likely event Kosovo Albanians clinch independence.

''It was specifically mentioned to the Serbian government and prime minister that three very important points that are negatively influencing the situation in Kosovo should be changed,'' Thierry Reynard, a senior French diplomat in Kosovo, told reporters on behalf of the Contact Group.

He said the Group had demanded in a letter to the Serbian government that it encourage Serbs to end their boycott of the Albanian institutions and withdraw an order for Serb workers in the Kosovo public sector to give up salaries from the Kosovo budget.

The Contact Group gave leaders of the 90-percent Albanian majority a similar list of 13 specific tasks to be met within the next four to six months to improve Serb rights and security.

Legally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombed for 78 days to drive out Serb forces and halt the killing and ethnic cleansing Belgrade employed in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.

Direct talks on its fate began in February with the mediation of former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.

Diplomats say the West favours independence. But with a decision due within the year, signs of resistance among the Serb minority are growing, with the explicit backing of Belgrade.

Leaders of 50,000 Serbs in the north, which runs adjacent to central Serbia, said last week they had cut ties with the capital Pristina over a spate of shootings they blame on ethnic Albanians.

The 17,000-strong NATO peace force plans to reopen an old base in the north to bolster mobile units, reflecting growing concern that Serb resistance there could escalate into a unilateral bid to partition the province.

REUTERS SK VC0425