UN ends Kosovo tour, says no deadline for decision

PRISTINA, Serbia, Apr 28 (Reuters) UN Security Council envoys wound up a mission to Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo today, saying they would deliberate on a disputed proposal for its independence without setting deadlines.

The fact-finding mission visited Kosovo at the suggestion of permanent Council member Russia, which backs Serbia in opposing independence for its Albanian-majority province, as proposed by a UN mediator after a year of fruitless talks.

''Deciding on important issues should never be hostage to predetermined deadlines,'' Belgian ambassador and mission head Johan Verbeke told a news conference.

Negotiation is a natural process, he said. ''You have to give it natural space and time in order for all parties of the Security Council to feel at ease with the solution.'' The tour by the states that may soon decide Kosovo's fate is a concession by NATO powers, which favour independence, to Russia, which supports Serb insistence that Kosovo, its cultural and religious heartland, must forever remain part of Serbia.

The United States says it expects a decision in May, warning of unrest if Kosovo's limbo status continues much longer.

But Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he believed the visit would force a rethink on Kosovo by some Council members.

''I will be very surprised if ... members stick to their old opinions, which were based merely on reports,'' he told Russian journalists, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

''This is not criticism, but as a Russian saying goes 'it is better to see once than to hear 100 times'.'' DECISION ''WITHIN WEEKS'' Kosovo, where 90 percent of the 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombs drove Serb forces out to halt the slaughter of Albanians in a counter-insurgency war. Ten thousand died.

The 15 ambassadors were jeered by Serbs and welcomed by Albanians on a helicopter tour of Kosovo earlier today, wrapping up a two-day mission to the UN-run territory.

The delegation beat a hasty retreat from the crumbling Serb quarter of Orahovac as police held back a crowd of angry Serbs.

Up to 200,000 Serbs and other ethnic minorities fled after the war, and the 100,000 Serbs who remain rely on 16,500 NATO-led peacekeepers for protection.

''We live in a ghetto,'' said Serb Vera Radic in Orahovac. ''If Kosovo becomes independent, we will leave.'' The envoys also visited the ethnic Albanian village of Mala Krusa, where they were shown the orchard where Serb forces killed 116 Albanian men and boys in March 1999.

''The delegation is welcome here,'' said Arsim Shehu, who lost 40 members of his extended family. ''We hope they will verify what the Serbs did here... We can't live with them any more.'' The West believes it has enough support in the Security Council to endorse a plan drafted by UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari to give Kosovo independence under European Union supervision, provided Moscow does not use its veto.

Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said yesterday the issue would be settled ''in weeks''.

REUTERS JS KN2156