UN envoy to present "initial ideas" on Kosovo

BELGRADE, Oct 20 (Reuters) UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari will present his ''initial ideas'' on the future of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo at a meeting of major powers tomorrow, amid signs they will delay a decision.

''He will brief the Contact Group on some of the initial ideas,'' his spokeswoman Hua Jiang said by phone from Vienna today. ''They will be very broad and general.'' The Contact Group guiding Balkan diplomacy comprises the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia. They will meet in Vienna, where Ahtisaari has been mediating between Serb and Albanian negotiators since February.

The former Finnish president said this week he would press ahead with plans to present his proposal on the final status of the province by the end of 2006.

Kosovo's 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority is pushing for independence, seven years after NATO bombs drove out Serbian forces and the United Nations took control.

Kosovo has demanded the West stick to its year-end timeframe to propose a solution, which would be then put to a vote at the UN Security Council.

But signs that Serbia could call snap elections for December have raised the prospect of a delay. Belgrade is expected to set the election date after a referendum on a new constitution on October 28 and 29.

The European Union said on Tuesday that if Serbia called elections, pitting ultranationalists against a divided democratic bloc, a decision on Kosovo could be postponed by ''a few weeks or months''.

Diplomats say some Western powers favour waiting until after the elections, fearing that to unveil proposals likely to offer Kosovo some form of independence before the polls would hand victory to ultranationalists capitalising on the loss of Serbia's religious cradle.

Ahtisaari's spokeswoman said he was sticking to the original timetable. ''We will keep discussing (with the Contact Group) until the time is right for presentation at the Security Council.

And we don't have a date for that yet,'' she said.

Some 10,000 Albanian civilians died in Serbia's 1998-99 war against separatist guerrillas. In 1999 NATO launched a bombing campaign to drive out Serbian forces accused of ethnic cleansing.

Kosovo's two million Albanians are impatient for independence after years of economic and political limbo. UN officials fear further delay could invite fresh ethnic violence.

Reuters BDP GC1803