US offers Serbs "orderly" path to Kosovo secession

BELGRADE, July 10 (Reuters) The United States today offered Serbia another 120 days of talks on the fate of Kosovo, but said independence for the breakaway province was ''inevitable''.

Russia has been resisting Western attempts to have the United Nations approve independence for Kosovo without Serbian agreement.

US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said Serbia and the province's ethnic Albanian majority would have one last, strictly limited, chance to agree a way forward.

But he told reporters after meeting Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica that the inevitability of independence ''is an objective reality''.

''It will happen one way or another,'' he said. ''It's our view it should happen in the most orderly way.'' In Brussels, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon echoed warnings from NATO allies that the impasse between the West and Russia was jeopardising security in the region.

''Any further delay or prolongation on this very important issue would have a very negative impact on all peace and security, not only in Kosovo, not only in the Balkans, but in the whole European situation,'' Ban told a news conference after meeting Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU could agree to another four to six months of talks, ''as long as it is not an open-ended process''.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Belgrade was open to fresh talks provided the outcome was not already decided. He said the presumption of independence ''almost amounts to an indecent proposal''.

The United States is pressing for a UN resolution in the coming week that would provide for another 120 days of talks between Serbs and Albanians, on top of 13 months of dialogue that ended in stalemate in March.

NO GOING BACK ''We have no reason to think any further delay [beyond 120 days] would be useful,'' Fried said.

He said Serbia's 1998-99 war against Albanian guerrillas ''has consequences'', and that ''we can't go back''.

Thousands were killed and 800,000 Albanian civilians were expelled in the conflict.

Leaders of Kosovo's 90 per cent Albanian majority have threatened to declare independence without a green light from the United Nations soon.

But Russia, holder of a veto in the UN Security Council, repeated yesterday that any deal had to have Serbian consent.

Reflecting rising impatience in the territory, Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku said Russia had blocked the UN route, and new talks would change nothing.

''Every delay is an empty concession to Moscow,'' Ceku told reporters in Pristina. ''We need clarity, and fast.'' The territory of 2 million people has been under UN administration since NATO waged an air war in 1999 to drive out Serbian forces and halt the expulsion of Albanians. It is now patrolled by 16,000 NATO peacekeepers.

The EU supports an independence plan drafted by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, and is preparing to send some 1,500 personnel to police Kosovo and help to shore up the rule of law.

One aide to Solana said this operation could if necessary begin on the basis of a UN resolution that did not fully resolve Kosovo's status.

''The EU needs a mandate, it doesn't need (Kosovo) independence,'' said the aide.

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