Kosovo leaders under pressure to strike out alone

PRISTINA, Serbia, June 9 (Reuters) Kosovo leaders today faced growing public pressure to declare independence from Serbia after Russia slammed the brakes on Western efforts to sanction the move at the United Nations.

The Group of Eight industrialised nations, meeting in Germany, looked to have negotiated the issue back to square one yesterday. A French proposal to postpone by six months drew warnings from Kosovo Albanians that they would take their ''own path'' if the UN Security Council did not vote soon.

Envoys of the five Western powers, known as the Quint, are expected to meet next week to discuss the impasse, and diplomats warned the European Union might have to abandon its ''dogmatic'' insistence on a UN resolution.

''If the Russian winter does not turn into a spring soon, people in the Quint capitals need to think outside the box, i.e. ways to solve the situation without a Security Council resolution,'' a senior Western diplomat told Reuters.

''Washington seems to grasp the situation, whereas the EU is paralysed by the self-inflicted mantra of 'we need a resolution','' he said.

Analysts caution the situation is nearing breaking point.

Guerrilla veterans and student activists called protests against the ''political games being played with the Kosovo people''.

Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku said politicians were ''losing legitimacy'' after Western diplomats scrambled yesterday to calm nerves jangled by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposal to postpone. Newspapers today spoke of impending chaos and reported an anonymous call to protest tomorrow, when US President George W Bush is due to visit Albania.

Run by the United Nations since 1999, Kosovo's 2 million ethnic Albanians are increasingly impatient for independence and an end to the political limbo in Europe's poorest region.

CHAOS Serb forces killed 10,000 Albanians and expelled almost one million in their 1998-99 war against guerrillas. NATO bombed for 11 weeks to drive them out, and the United Nations took control.

Kosovo leaders had promised a UN resolution leading to independence in June, having twice seen it delayed last year by Western powers anxious to limit the fallout in Serbia.

But Russia made clear yesterday it would veto the move in support of Serbian sovereignty over land cherished by Serbs as their spiritual heartland dating back 1,000 years.

The influential Kosovo daily Koha Ditore said the summit in Heiligendamm had ''exceeded the Albanians' worst expectations''.

''The result is political chaos in Kosovo,'' wrote editor Agron Bajrami, ''which could easily turn to destabilisation.'' Kosovo should wait until end-June for a UN resolution, he said, and then declare independence without one.

''Even this scenario is complicated, but it is a better alternative to simply waiting, which generates tension and threatens stability, not just in Kosovo,'' wrote Bajrami.

Kosovo is awash with hidden weapons, and NATO's 16,500-strong peace force warns mounting tension could erupt into violence targeting the 100,000 remaining Serbs.

The United States has indicated it would recognise Kosovo even without a UN resolution. But the EU would lack the legal basis to take over supervision of the territory from the United Nations, as proposed in a blueprint submitted in April by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari after 13 months of Serb-Albanian talks.

The fragile unity of the 27-member EU over the issue risks crumbling without a resolution.

Reuters AE GC1700