EU says Serbia vote on Kosovo contradictory

BRUSSELS, Oct 30 (Reuters) The European Commission said today Serbia's adoption of a constitution declaring Kosovo an integral part of the country was contradictory because most of the breakaway province's people were not on the voting lists.

Commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy welcomed provisional results showing the charter replacing a constitution from the era of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic had been adopted.

She said the European Union had urged Belgrade to revise its constitution in line with European standards and the Commission would give its assessment of the text in its next regular progress report on November eight.

Nagy said Kosovo's future status was a separate matter subject to a negotiating process being conducted by United Nations mediator Martti Ahtisaari.

''What I can say on the matter of claiming sovereignty over Kosovo in the new constitution for the time being is to point out a contradiction in the fact that the voters list which was used for yesterday's referendum is the one from 2001 and this list does not include a majority of the population in Kosovo,'' Nagy said.

Kosovo's 90 per cent ethnic Albanian majority were not invited to vote and ignored the referendum, saying it did not affect their demand for independence.

EU officials said Brussels regarded the constitution as a step towards greater democracy and modernisation but it had some concerns about the independence of the judiciary under the new basic law, which would be spelled out in next week's report.

REUTERS SP RK1832