EU-US debate whether to call vote on Kosovo at UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 18 (Reuters) Testing Russia's opposition to plans for Kosovo's future, Europeans and the United States have formally introduced a draft UN resolution but have not decide whether to call a vote.

Moscow, which has veto power in the UN Security Council, has rejected any action that would lead to Kosovo's independence from Serbia, an ally of Russia, and has said the resolution had ''zero'' chance of being adopted.

The introduction of the draft late yesterday, with slight revisions, means a vote can be called after 24 hours but does not have to be. Sponsors of the text said no vote had been scheduled, indicating they would await Moscow's reaction and then decide whether to take action elsewhere.

The United States on Friday and the European foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, yesterday, threatened to solve the Kosovo independence controversy outside of the Security Council if Russia did not go along.

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 Serbian troops that were killing and expelling Albanians in a two-year war with guerrillas.

Under the draft resolution, the two sides would resume negotiations for 120 days after which the United Nations would hand over the administration of the province to the European Union. NATO troops would stay on.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said on Monday that the United Nations should stay in place, negotiations should continue until a solution was found and that the new institutional arrangements in the draft appeared to pave the way for independence of Kosovo through the back door.

''It's kind of a hidden automaticity of the Ahtisaari plan,'' Churkin said in reference to U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, who conducted negotiations for months and devised a plan leading to independence. The European takeover from the United Nations in Kosovo is part of his plan.

CONTACT GROUP The latest draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, also ''welcomes'' help in the 120 days of negotiations from the European Union and the Contact Group, an informal advisory body created in the mid-1990s to oversee Balkan diplomacy.

It includes the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia but no one country has a veto.

''We used to have a very cooperative relationship with the Russians on the Balkans through the Contact Group,'' Britain's deputy ambassador Karen Pierce said. ''It is a source of some regret that they no longer seem to want to work through the Contact Group and bring this ... to a managed conclusion.'' From Pristina, ethnic Albanian leaders in the breakaway Serbian province said the council had failed on Kosovo and urged the West to offer an alternative route to independence.

Two earlier drafts of the resolution had included an automatic trigger of the Ahtisaari plan. The latest draft calls for a Security Council review after 120 days of negotiations but does not say what happens afterward.

Council members are worried that Kosovo leaders will declare independence unilaterally, although that might jeopardize ties with and aid from the EU.

REUTERS PY DS1105