Reuters AlertNet Lite - Kosovo premier sees no Russian veto in UN -report

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Kosovo premier sees no Russian veto in UN -report

12 Mar 2007 09:51:05 GMT
Source: Reuters

VIENNA, March 12 (Reuters) - Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku does not expect Russia to veto a U.N. plan establishing the basis for independence of the Serbian province in the U.N. Security Council, Ceku was quoted as saying on Monday.

Ceku added in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse Kosovo would not declare independence unilaterally if there was a Russian veto to the proposal, which U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari will present the Security Council this month.

"I think that Russia will be on board and we will get Ahtisaari's plan through the Security Council," Ceku told the newspaper in an interview published on Monday.

"Anyway, we are not going to make unilateral decisions," he said. "We will do nothing that puts our partnership with the international community at risk," Ceku said.

Ahtisaari on Saturday declared an end to over a year of fruitless Serb-Albanian talks after leaders of Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority remained deadlocked despite a last-chance meeting in Vienna.

If the U.N. Security Council adopts his blueprint, Kosovo will declare itself Europe's newest independent state and the last to be carved from the former Yugoslavia.

Russia remains the only potential stumbling block. Serbia's fellow Orthodox Christian ally insists time be given for both sides to agree on a solution, but has pointedly avoided threatening the use of its council veto.

Though it avoids the word independence, the U.N. envoy's blueprint sets out the framework for an independent state, under a foreign overseer and European Union police mission. It offers self-government and protection for the 100,000 remaining Serbs.

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Last updated:Mon Mar 12 09:53:08 2007