Serbian president pleads for Kosovo delay

HELSINKI, Oct 13 (Reuters) Serbian President Boris Tadic pleaded today for a short postponement of a UN final status proposal for the breakaway province of Kosovo, likely to lead to its independence from Belgrade.

After talks with European Union Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, Tadic told reporters: ''It is much better to have elections in Serbia before the agreement. I'm not asking to delay the process, I'm asking for rationality.'' Serbia is widely expected to hold an early general election in December and UN peace envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, is due to present his plan for Kosovo's final status in early November with a view to completing a deal by the end of the year.

Rehn did not comment on the timing, but Ahtisaari told Reuters this week he still expected to submit his proposal by next month.

EU foreign ministers are due to support Ahtisaari when they meet on Monday and Tuesday in Luxembourg and are set to warn parties against any attempt to delay the process.

''Striving for a negotiated settlement should not obscure the fact that neither party can unilaterally delay or block the status process from advancing,'' EU foreign ministers are set to say, according to a draft statement agreed by EU ambassadors.

The major-power Contact Group overseeing Balkans diplomacy agreed in New York last month there should be no delay and asked Ahtisaari to put forward his own plan in the light of deadlock in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Some EU diplomats have said it would make sense to allow a few weeks' slippage for the conclusion of the final status process, which will require a UN Security Council resolution, to accommodate the Serbian election.

But since all Serbian parties are equally opposed to relinquishing sovereignty over the province, British and US officials argue there is no point in dragging out the process.

Rehn said he expected EU governments to agree in the next two weeks on a mandate for negotiations with Serbia on visa facilitation, to enable students and young people to visit the 25-nation bloc more easily.

However, he stressed that negotiations on closer ties between Belgrade and Brussels would remain frozen until the UN war crimes prosecutor certified that Serbia was cooperating fully with the Hague tribunal.

Talks were suspended in May after Belgrade failed to keep a promise to arrest and hand over former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic for trial on genocide charges.

EU foreign ministers are due to review Serbia's progress at a meeting with Belgrade's foreign minister on Monday in Luxembourg which chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte will attend.

EU officials said they had no indication that she would say she was satisfied with Serbian cooperation.

Reuters SP RS1805