France sees no Kosovo deal with Russia at UN

PARIS, July 18 (Reuters) France today said it did not expect to reach a deal with Russia at the United Nations over a draft resolution on Kosovo's future.

''I hope there will be a compromise with the Russians on the resolution ... which has been written in New York. But I very much doubt it,'' French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after talks with his British counterpart David Miliband.

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

Kosovo, where 90 per cent of the 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, has been run by the United Nations since NATO intervened in 1999 to halt the killing and expulsion of Albanians by Serb forces.

Under the draft resolution introduced late yesterday, 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 wants more negotiations until a solution is found and says new institutional arrangements in the draft appear to pave the way for independence of Kosovo through the back door.

''It seems that the Russians are not willing to sign it (the draft resolution),'' said Kouchner. ''Under these conditions there will be no agreement on a resolution and under these conditions there will, no doubt, be no resolution.'' 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 with the current draft UN resolution.

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