To mollify Russia, Western envoys have Kosovo plan

UNITED NATIONS, June 20 (Reuters) The United States and Europeans have drafted a new UN Security Council resolution that seeks to delay independence for Kosovo for four months in an effort to meet Russia's objections, a US official and other diplomats said.

The document is being analysed by governments of the drafters before being circulated to the full 15-member council. But some envoys doubted Russia would approve the new draft, a modified version of one in mid-May.

After a 120-day delay to allow Kosovo and Serbian leaders to hold fresh talks, the resolution would automatically put into effect a plan drawn up by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

This calls for virtual independence for Kosovo under European administration. The Serbian province has been under UN administration for almost eight years.

But it is unlikely that Russia, Belgrade's ally, would go for the same plan, which puts no pressure on Kosovars to negotiate four months from now, unless a deal on other issues is concluded with Moscow. President George W Bush had hoped for an agreement before he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kennebunkport, Maine, on July 2.

A senior US official in Washington told Reuters yesterday that Russia's reaction still had to be tested, including its previous hints at exercising its veto power in the council. He also said that a date for a vote had not been settled.

Kosovo, seen by Serbs as a cradle of their culture, passed out of Belgrade's control in 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces who had killed 10,000 Albanian civilians in a two-year war with guerrillas.

STALEMATE Western nations say it is time to end the lengthy stalemate on the breakaway province because talks between Serbs and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority on its status have led nowhere. Russia, as well as France, have said more time is needed for negotiations.

The original draft refers to ''the specific circumstances that make Kosovo a special case,'' a reference to the years of violence that accompanied the former Yugoslavia's breakup in the 1990s.

Under Ahtisaari's plan, a European envoy mandated by the United Nations and the EU would replace the UN mission, with power to veto laws and dismiss local officials. The EU would deploy a police mission alongside the current 16,500-strong NATO peace force.

Kosovo would have the right to enter into international agreements and seek membership of international organizations, which could include the United Nations.

But Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said last month that Western and Russian ideas for Kosovo were irreconcilable.

Asked about a Moscow veto, he said the situation ''does require the need to use all options available.'' In Helsinki, Ahtisaari told Finnish YLE television he believed Russia would veto his plan on Kosovo but that the province would gain independence this year.

This could mean a solution on Kosovo takes place outside the United Nations with the support of the United States and the EU, Ahtisaari said.

In Pristina last week, Frank Wisner, the US envoy for Kosovo, said the West was considering a resolution that would include a further ''time-limited'' period of dialogue, but with independence the only outcome.

The aim, he said, was ''not to delay what the outcome has to be, but to make it clear to the world that every avenue was pursued.'' REUTERS KN SBA BST0558