Kosovo to be independent with or without UN-US

BRUSSELS, Apr 28 (Reuters) Kosovo will be independent with or without a United Nations resolution, and Russia should back an agreement to protect the Kosovo Serb minority, the United States said today.

Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said it was possible the latest Russian criticism of UN mediator Marti Ahtisaari's plan for the final status of the breakaway Serbian province meant Moscow intended to block a resolution.

''We hope that Russia understands that Kosovo is going to be independent one way or another,'' Fried told Reuters in at interview at a Brussels Forum on transatlantic relations.

''It will either be done in a controlled, supervised way that provides for the well-being of the Serbian people, or it will take place in an uncontrolled way and the Kosovo Serbs will suffer the most, which would be terrible.'' Moscow has repeatedly said it will not accept a solution which is unacceptable to Serbia, which is adamantly opposed to any form of independence for Kosovo.

Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, proposes supervised independence with a strong role for an international presence to protect minority rights.

He acknowledged the European Union could be split over whether or not to recognise Kosovo if there was no UN resolution and Kosovo's overwhelming Albanian majority declared independence unilaterally.

''I see absolutely no advantage to doing this any other way than through a Security Council resolution. I see merely disadvantages,'' Fried said. ''The alternatives are all worse.

''A divided Europe is a bad thing in general and a terrible thing in this particular case.'' A resolution would provide legal authority to protect the Kosovo Serbs and help the Europeans to unite, he said.

Kosovo has been an international protectorate since NATO waged an air war in 1999 to drive out Serbian forces and end ethnic cleansing. Some 90 per cent of the province's 2 million population are Albanians.

''Kosovo is in the list of problems that do not improve with age and neglect. The situation there is not inherently stable,'' said Fried.

Former US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke told the Brussels Forum the next few weeks would be a fundamental test of Russian President Vladimir Putin's view of his role in the world.

''If he vetoes the Ahtisaari plan in the Security Council, there will be a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo. The United States will recognise them, I hope the same day ... Some of the EU will, some won't,'' Holbrooke said.

''There will probably be violence on the ground and it will be Russia's fault.'' REUTERS JS KN2242