US says no deal on Kosovo delay; urges patience

PRISTINA, Serbia, June 8 (Reuters) The United States moved swiftly today to head off a possible declaration of independence by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders, assuring them world powers at the G8 summit had not agreed to delay a United Nations vote on their demand for statehood for six months.

Group of Eight leaders ''did not reach any agreement yesterday on French President Sarkozy's proposal or another way forward for Kosovo, and reports of an agreement yesterday on a six-month delay are incorrect'', the US liaison office in Kosovo said in a statement.

Kosovo Albanian leaders have threatened to declare independence from Serbia unilaterally if Russia vetoes a UN resolution, as it has suggested it might. They were locked in meetings today morning following reports of a deal at the G8 summit in Germany to delay the UN vote.

''The United States and its European Union partners will continue high-level discussions with Russia and other Security Council members about the need for the Security Council to make a decision soon,'' the US statement said.

''Intense diplomacy of this kind often takes time. All parties should remain patient,'' it added.

The United States had forecast a UN vote this week, but has apparently retreated in the face of the threatened veto.

NATO leads a 17,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

Western powers are very concerned that thwarting the province's independence demands could provoke unrest and violence.

Major powers at the G8 summit were deadlocked today over Sarkozy's proposal to delay a Security Council vote in return for Russia - an ally of Serbia- accepting ''the unavoidable prospect'' of independence for Kosovo.

Kosovo, whose population is 90 per cent Albanian, has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces to halt the killing and expulsion of Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.

Its leaders have vested much of their credibility in the promise of independence by mid-2007, having twice seen the decision delayed by the West last year to limit the fallout in Serbia, which insists it will never give up the province.

''For the time being, the necessary progress has not been made,'' Sarkozy told reporters on Friday after talks with US President George W Bush on the last day of the June 6-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.

REUTERS GT MIR KP1637