(Adds quotes from Burns, Russian ambassador) By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS, March 26 (Reuters) - The United States backs a plan giving supervised independence to Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province and expects a United Nations Security Council vote on the proposal by summer, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. The plan, drafted by U.N. special envoy and former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, went to the Security Council on Monday after a year of fruitless negotiations between Serbia and the majority ethnic Albanians in the province. "The United States does support the proposal by President Ahtisaari for a supervised independence for Kosovo," U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in Brussels. "After a year of effort and a year of conversation it's time the Kosovars received their just due." Burns said Russian reservations would have to be overcome, but added: "I think the Ahtisaari plan will be accepted by the United Nations." In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he fully supported the recommendation for independence for Kosovo, supervised by the international community. Ahtisaari said in the report that "independence is the only viable option for a politically stable and economically viable Kosovo". The Ahtisaari plan would give independence to the 90-percent Albanian-majority province but provides for an EU overseer and broad self-government for the remaining 100,000 Serbs. Serbia rejects independence for Kosovo as a violation of international law. It says it would never accept the amputation of the province it sees as the cradle of the Serb nation. The United States and the EU have set an unofficial deadline of June for a Security Council resolution backing the blueprint, eight years after the West went to war to wrest control of the territory from the forces of late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic. Burns said he expected five to seven weeks of consultations with Kosovo Albanian leaders, the Serb government and members of the Security Council to try to format the best resolution. "We are going to reach out to the Russians, the Chinese, the other members of the Security Council," he said, adding he hoped "by April or May it will be time to pass this resolution". U.N. veto holder Russia, which backs Serbia, has called for the talks to continue and insists a solution must be acceptable to both sides, a goal Western analysts say is impossible. Speaking at a Brussels think thank, Burns rejected remarks made last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin that it would be difficult to grant Kosovo independence but deny it to others. "I don't think that anyone would even suggest that Kosovo is a precedent that would have an impact on Georgia, Moldova or another country in Europe," he said, referring to former Soviet states with pro-Russian separatist movements. However, while Burns was talking to a group of journalists afterwards, Russian ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov leaned across to say goodbye to the American and added: "It will be a precedent, but not because we want it!" Ten thousand Albanians died and almost one million fled during Serbia's 1998-99 counter-insurgency war against Albanian separatist guerrillas. NATO allies heading 16,500 troops in Kosovo say Albanians will not accept a longer wait for independence and have warned of unrest. (Additional reporting by William Schomberg, Matt Robinson)
