By Ellie Tzortzi BELGRADE, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Kosovo's political limbo is unsustainable and its future must be decided, EU mediator Wolfgang Ischinger said ahead of a final visit to the region on Monday before reporting to the United Nations. Ischinger and mediators from the United States and Russia were due in Serbia and its breakaway southern province of Kosovo after four months of negotiations ended in failure last week. They are expected to present to Serb and Kosovo Albanian leaders a draft version of a report that must be submitted to the United Nations by Dec. 10. Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority says it will then declare independence "in coordination" with its Western backers, probably in early 2008. Ischinger told the Belgrade daily Blic there were no more options to explore that could lead to compromise between Serbia's offer of broad autonomy and the Albanian demand for independence after eight years of U.N. rule. He said the report from the EU-U.S.-Russia 'troika' would not recommend how the U.N. should proceed -- an impossible task, given the clear split between Washington and Moscow on Kosovo's independence and whether or not negotiations should continue. "Our report to the U.N. secretary-general will present the entire process of negotiations and how and in what measure did the parties participate," the German diplomat said. "It is very difficult for the Troika to recommend what to do after Dec. 10. We'll leave that to our governments." A declaration of independence was one possible scenario, he said. "I believe this act will be coordinated as much as possible with the EU, U.S. and other countries. One thing is certain: the status quo is unsustainable and a decision is necessary". NATO BOMBING Kosovo has been under U.N. rule since 1999, when NATO bombs expelled Serb forces accused of the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians while battling separatist rebels. Almost 18 months of negotiations, led first by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, have failed to produce any hint of compromise. Russia blocked Ahtisaari's plan for EU-supervised independence at the U.N. Security Council, and says talks must continue beyond December. The United States and European Union says mediation ends with the mediators' report, and there are signs of increasing unity within the 27-member EU to support a declaration of independence. Serbia has warned of a domino effect of violent unrest in the Balkans if Kosovo becomes independent, raising the possibility that minority Serbs in Bosnia and Albanians in Macedonia could in turn demand to secede from their states. Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said the contents of the draft report should be "negotiable". Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country assumes the EU presidency on Jan. 1, said: "It is essential that the path to independence is coordinated internationally". "We need a little more time for that," Rupel told German business daily Handelsblatt, but added: "The Kosovars must definitely not wait another year for independence." (Reporting by Ksenija Prodanovic and Paul Carrel; Writing by Ellie Tzortzi and Matt Robinson; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
