European stability linked to Kosovo future: France

United Nations, Apr 4: Kosovo's future status should be decided by the UN Security Council within weeks because the stability of Europe is at stake, France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said.

The UN mediator for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, last week recommended supervised independence for the breakaway Serbian province a move fiercely opposed by Belgrade but strongly backed by the United States and European Union.

The Security Council is considering a possible visit to Kosovo and La Sabliere said he expected the 15-member body to vote on a resolution determining Kosovo's future within weeks, after years of UN administration over the province.

"We don't have to rush and adopt something in the coming days, but yes we should not delay too much, this would be very risky," La Sabliere told reporters before the council received a briefing from Ahtisaari.

He added that he believed Russia was trying to delay the process. Russia has raised fears that granting independence for Kosovo would set a dangerous precedent for separatist groups elsewhere in places such as in Abkhazia or south Ossetia.

However, La Sabliere said Kosovo was not a precedent. "What is at stake is the stability of Europe and this is the completion of the process of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, so it's a very specific situation," he said.

"To keep the status quo is not an option, it would be even dangerous," he said yesterday.

Kosovo is the last major dispute following the breakup of Yugoslavia marked by bloody wars in the 1990s.

Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999, when NATO launched bombing raids to stop Serb forces from driving out the province's ethnic Albanians, who comprise 90 percent of the population.

More Negotiations

Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, has urged more negotiations to seek a solution acceptable to the ethnic Albanian Kosovars and the Serb minority.

Moscow has been careful not to outright reject Ahtisaari's independence proposals.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica addressed the closed meeting of the Security Council on Tuesday, while a representative of the UN mission in Kosovo spoke on behalf of Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu.

Sejdiu, who did not address the council due to protocol issues, told reporters afterward that "unfortunately we have exhausted all possibilities of a negotiated agreement." Kostunica called for new talks with a new mediator.

The Ahtisaari plan would give independence to the ethnic Albanian-majority but provides for a European Union overseer, an EU police mission alongside the current 16,500-strong NATO peace force and broad self-government for the remaining 100,000 Serbs.

Reuters