Kosovo troika does not rule out partition

PRISTINA, Serbia, Aug 12 (Reuters) The diplomatic troika leading new talks on Kosovo said on Sunday that dividing the territory remained an option if Serbs and Albanians agreed to it.

Western policy on Kosovo has previously ruled out partition as a potential spark for regional conflict. Any partition would be likely to leave the Serb-dominated north as part of Serbia.

''It is the principle of the troika to be prepared to endorse any agreement which both parties manage to achieve. That includes all options,'' the European Union's envoy on the troika, Wolfgang Ischinger, told a news conference.

Asked if that included splitting the territory in two, he replied: ''If they want that.'' Other members of the troika are the United States and Russia.

Western diplomats have argued that splitting Kosovo in two could revive insurgencies among ethnic Albanians in Serbia's southern Presevo Valley and neighbouring Macedonia.

Envoys from the troika were on their first visit to Kosovo since Moscow blocked a UN plan to give Kosovo independence at the UN Security Council.

The territory has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO carried out a bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces and halt the killing and expulsion of Albanians during a two-year separatist war.

Kosovo's 90-per cent Albanian majority demands independence.

REUTERS JT KP1918