EU considers key role to break Kosovo deadlock

BRUSSELS, July 23 (Reuters) European Union states today agreed to seize the initiative to try to break a deadlock over Kosovo's independence hopes that risks exposing rifts in the bloc over the fate of the breakaway Serb province.

Efforts to clinch a UN resolution on its status reached an impasse last week after Russian resistance in the Security Council, raising the prospect of Kosovo declaring independence unilaterally -- a move that could split the EU.

Foreign ministers meeting in Brussels avoided talk of such a possibility and instead backed a German call for a ''troika'' of EU, Russian and U.S. mediators to oversee a new round of shuttle diplomacy between Kosovo and Serbia -- with the EU potentially assuming overall responsibility.

''What is important is that the EU member states are all going to stick together in order to find a solution that contributes to the stability and the prosperity of the Balkans,'' EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after the meeting.

He said the EU would discuss the troika proposal with the United States and Russia this week and he had been charged with finding an EU envoy to represent the 27-member bloc in about four months of talks starting in August.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the aim of the troika was to create an ''efficient international roof'' for tough negotiations and to secure an accord averting yet more conflict in Europe's Balkan backyard.

''It's not just today that we are assuming political responsibility for the Western Balkans and for Kosovo -- we've done that for years,'' he told reporters.

EUROPEAN LEADERSHIP French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner urged both Serbs and Kosovars to compromise and acknowledged that the EU would be split if Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders went ahead with calls to unilaterally declare independence later this year.

''Of course, if the Kosovars declared independence on their own, some countries would support them and that has to be avoided,'' Kouchner told a news conference.

While few countries have revealed their stance on any move by Kosovo to declare independence, diplomats say Spain and a handful of countries in southeast Europe are most opposed to a step that could unsettle the Balkans region and set a dangerous precedent for their own minorities.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted on the need for the EU to maintain a common policy on Kosovo when asked about Pristina's calls to set November 28 as the date for a unilateral declaration of independence.

''It's probably important to establish our own position and (that we) are clear about the need for strong European leadership and strong European unity,'' he told reporters.

''Our commitment to the Ahtisaari plan remains very strong,'' he said of a plan by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari which would hand the province's ethnic Albanian majority a form of independence while seeking to protect its Serb minorities.

The Ahtisaari plan also foresees the EU taking over policing duties from the United Nations in the province of two million. The EU is preparing to go ahead with the 1,600-plus mission even without a final ruling on Kosovo's future, but it is not clear when the operation could start.

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