PM Says Kosovo Will Declare Independence If Talks Fail

PM Says Kosovo Will Declare Independence If Talks Fail

August 30, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku says the Serbian province will declare independence unilaterally if current negotiations on its status do not "open a way for us."

Three-way talks on the future of Kosovo are in progress in Vienna between Serbia, Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian leadership, and international envoys.

Arriving at the talks, EU representative Wolfgang Ischinger told journalists that he was "realistically optimistic" that the negotations can make progress.

But many observers say there is little hope for a breakthrough, as Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians say they will settle for nothing less than independence, which Serbia says it will not accept.

Serbia's minister for Kosovar affairs, Slobodan Samardzic, said his delegation was going to present a plan that would give Kosovo "essential autonomy," but not independence.

Diplomats from the EU, the United States, and Russia have already completed a round of talks with the ethnic Albanian leaders, and are to meet the Serbian delegation later today.

The talks are being held behind closed doors. The next round is scheduled for September 7.

A previous year-long round of talks failed after Russia threatened to block a UN plan that offered Kosovo "internationally supervised independence."

(with material from agency reports)

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PM Says Kosovo Will Declare Independence If Talks Fail