A senior U.S. official said Monday that Washington's strong support for Kosovo's independence from Serbia will not cause lasting damage to relations with Belgrade.

In a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said that the United States considers independence the only option for the province, which has been a U.N. protectorate since 1999.

"We don't want this very painful and difficult decision about the independence of Kosovo to in effect scuttle the possibility of good relations between our two countries," Burns said.

"Following this very painful separation of Kosovo from Serbia, the United States will signal very clearly our belief that we can have a good future with the Serb people," he said.

Serbia is a "great state with which we have had very good and warm relations throughout our history with the exception of the last 10-15 years," he said.

In February, the United States welcomed the plan put forward by U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari for the status of Serbia's Kosovo as "fair and balanced," saying the plan, which was named Comprehensive Proposal for Kosovo Status Settlement is "a blueprint for a stable, prosperous and multiethnic Kosovo."

The settlement proposal suggests that Kosovo will not return to Serbian rule and will obtain legal status that permits other countries to eventually recognize it as an independent state.

Kosovo has been run by the U.N. mission since 1999 when NATO bombing forced the late Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, who was accused of killing 10,000 ethnic Albanians during a counter-insurgency war, to withdraw forces from the province. The province of 2 million is cherished by Serbia for its cultural and religious heritage.

Source: Xinhua