"Groundhog Day" at Kosovo talks

VIENNA, Feb 21 (Reuters) Serbia wants talks on Kosovo to go back to where they started a year ago, ignoring a United Nations plan based on granting independence to the breakaway province, a Kosovo Albanian leader said today.

''It's like Groundhog Day. You wake up and find exactly the same proposals from Belgrade,'' Veton Surroi told reporters after UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari convened both sides in Vienna for what he expects will be a final series of meetings.

Surroi said the Serbs ''are trying to reopen a totally new process of negotiation'' instead of discussing Ahitsaari's plan which is ''applicable only in an independent Kosovo''.

Ahtisaari also expressed a sense of deja vu.

''On the status issue ... nothing has indicated that the parties will be moving in a different direction,'' he said during a break in the proceedings.

Serbia says it is acting in good faith.

''We are not rejecting the entire plan. We reject only the provisions violating the territorial integrity of Serbia,'' said Serbian negotiator Slobodan Samardzic.

But the Kosovo Albanian demand to be free of Serbian rule is a fundamental issue.

Serbia, backed by Russia, strongly opposes independence for Kosovo, which has been the key demand of the region's 90 percent Albanian majority since before NATO and the United Nations took control of the province from Serb forces in June 1999.

NO MORE DELAY Ahtisaari has proposed that Kosovo be granted a path to independence, supervised by the European Union. The former Finnish president says it would take ''a miracle'' to persuade Serbia to agree to that, or convince the Albanians to settle for the Serb offer of ''substantial autonomy''.

He also warned of fears that security in Kosovo could deteriorate if a decision is delayed.

''I have already delayed my plan too much,'' he told a news conference. ''If there's eternal delay in this process then the security situation becomes problematic.'' Serbia says Albanian ''extremists'' threatening violence if independence does not come very soon must not be permitted to blackmail the international community.

Ahtisaari agreed to delay presenting his proposals in November because Serbia was to hold a general election in January and Western powers were afraid bad news on Kosovo would drive voters into the arms of ultranationalist parties.

The process was delayed again briefly last month when Ahtisaari postponed the final round of talks to allow Serbia to convene its new parliament.

''Belgrade has gone through the whole year talking about territory and not about people,'' Surroi said. All Kosovo Albanians had to do was show ''patience in the last few laps of this marathon''.

Kosovo was the cause of NATO's first ''humanitarian'' war in 1999 to remove Serb forces who killed 10,000 Albanians and drove out almost 1 million in a two-year conflict with rebels.

The United Nations took control, but left Kosovo's status open.

The West sees no prospect of reimposing Serb rule.

Serbia says it would be illegal to sever 15 percent of its territory and remove its ancient religious heartland, an impoverished territory the size of Qatar or Connecticut.

REUTERS PDM RN2013