Russia gives firm 'no' to West's Kosovo plan at UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 (Reuters) Russia gave a definitive ''no'' to a European-American draft resolution on Kosovo that would end a UN presence and put European representatives in charge of the Serbian province.

The Russian response to the revised UN Security Council draft leaves the West in a quandary on whether to call a vote that Moscow would veto or to move ahead on a route toward independence for Kosovo outside of the 15-member council.

Moscow's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said yesterday the text was a stealth move toward independence, despite its call for 120 days of further talks between Belgrade and Pristina.

''The consequences of this resolution -- if it were able to be passed by the Security Council and the chances of that are zero -- would be that 120 days from now we'd be walking around saying we don't really know what we were doing four months earlier,'' Churkin said after council consultations.

Kosovo, where 90 per cent of the 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombs forced out Serb troops that were killing and expelling Albanians in a two-year war with guerrillas.

''Almost the entire text and maybe particularly the annexes are permeated with the concept of the independence of Kosovo,'' Churkin said.

Substituting European representatives and institutions for the United Nations in Kosovo would give the Security Council, and by extension Russia, an ally of the Serbia, less influence.

But France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, speaking on behalf of the sponsors, told reporters it was difficult to guess what to do after four months of negotiations should the resolution be adopted.

If Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement, the council could adopt a resolution endorsing it. If they did not, members would have to review what to do next. ''We cannot say today. We do not know,'' de la Sabliere said.

In the meantime, he said, those who had influence on either party ''had to push'' for a solution.

But Churkin said a review was not good enough and the council would have to make a decision at the end of any negotiating period.

Western diplomats said Russia was not negotiating on the text so they would have to consult with their respective governments on the next step.

Earlier drafts also called for 120 days of renewed talks but had included an automatic trigger of a plan by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari that would lead to Kosovo's independence.

The new and third draft drops the trigger but puts in place the European framework proposed by Ahtisaari. But it no longer calls for Kosovo'S membership in international bodies.

On Friday, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad threatened to move forward on Kosovo, which is clamoring for independence from Serbia, outside the Security Council whether Russia agreed or not to the resolution.

Reuters JK VP0430