Russia urges time out in Kosovo status process

MOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) Russia today appealed for more time in settling the status of Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo and warned that granting independence could open a ''Pandora's Box'' across Europe.

UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari unveiled a plan last week that would set the predominantly ethnic Albanian province on the path to independence. Russia, an historic ally of Serbia, could block the plan in the UN Security Council.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow viewed the Ahtisaari plan not as a definitive solution but as the starting point for further talks.

''Attempts to shove in these proposals without the resumption of negotiations in the UN Security Council are counter-productive and will lead nowhere,'' Lavrov said in a newspaper interview released by the foreign ministry.

''I cannot imagine how the Security Council could take a decision that will be unacceptable to the Serbs.'' Ahtisaari has led a one-year process, now nearing its conclusion, to determine Kosovo's final status.

The province has been under UN administration since 1999, when NATO launched bombing raids to stop Serb forces from driving out the province's ethnic Albanians.

The envoy's proposal, supported by Europe and the United States, would give the province independence in all but name.

That outcome is opposed by Belgrade -- where ultranationalist hardliners took the biggest share of the vote in a January. 21 parliamentary election -- and by Russia which has religious, ethnic and historic ties to Serbia.

Brussels and Washington have both sent delegations to Moscow this week to gauge Russia's next steps on Kosovo.

Lavrov's ministry today appeared to back a Serbian plea for a delay in international talks on Kosovo until after it convenes a new parliament this month.

''The Russian side underlined the need for the sides and international mediators to patiently seek a solution ... without artificial time frames and while respecting internal Serbian political realities in connection with the recent parliamentary elections,'' the ministry said in a statement.

In the Spanish city of Seville, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov repeated a long-standing Kremlin warning that independence for Kosovo would set a precedent that could ignite separatist conflicts elsewhere.

''That is of course true of the post-Soviet area, but not only there it is true also of areas across Europe,'' Ivanov said on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defence ministers.

''The whole thing can lead to a chain reaction, or, in other words, we have to be careful that we do not open a Pandora's box.'' REUTERS SY RK1804