Serbia appeals to UN to reject Kosovo plan

VIENNA, March 10 (Reuters) Serbia called on the United Nations today to reject a Western-backed proposal for the independence of Kosovo as Serbs and Albanians ended a year of talks on the fate of the breakaway province.

President Boris Tadic made the appeal in Vienna at a final meeting between leaders of Serbia and Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority before the plan drafted by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari goes to the Security Council.

In a copy of his speech distributed to media, Tadic said he expected ''serious debate'' at the U.N. Security Council.

''If Ahtisaari's proposal was to be accepted, it would be the first time in contemporary history that territory would be taken away from a democratic, peaceful country in order to satisfy the aspirations of a particular ethnic group that already has its nation-state,'' he said.

''The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia cannot be compromised,'' he told the meeting in Vienna's Hofburg Palace.

Months of Serb-Albanian talks in 2006 and 2007 have produced little but disagreement. Ahtisaari wants to present the final document to UN headquarters by late March, eight years to the month since NATO bombed to wrest control of Kosovo from Serbia.

Ten thousand Albanians died and almost one million fled during Serbia's 1998-99 counter-insurgency war, before the United Nations took control.

Ahtisaari has long said an agreed solution is impossible. The West wants the U.N. Security Council to impose a solution by June, seeing no prospect of forcing 2 million Albanians back into the arms of Serbia.

FOREIGN OVERSEER Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu told the meeting that independence was ''the beginning and end of our position''.

''This is the future of Kosovo, a modern state which came to fruition after a history of resistance to foreign occupation.'' Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica opted out of a joint lunch with the Kosovo Albanian delegation. He says sometime Serbian ally Russia will use its veto to block Ahtisaari's plan, or at least delay it.

A political source close to the talks said Serbia had again insisted the talks continue. But NATO allies leading 16,500 troops in Kosovo fear delay would only bring violence.

Though it avoids the word independence, the blueprint sets out the framework for an independent state, under a foreign overseer and European Union police mission. It offers self-government and protection for the 100,000 remaining Serbs.

Unveiled in February, the plan's limitations have won a frosty and at times violent reaction from some Albanians. But their leaders have accepted it.

Belgrade has offered broad autonomy, within its borders. Russia says the solution should be acceptable to both sides, but has carefully avoided threatening the use of its UN veto.

If Ahtisaari's plan is adopted, Kosovo could declare independence by the end of the year, becoming Europe's newest state and the last to be carved from the former Yugoslavia.

REUTERS MS PM2018