The UN Security Council is set to debate on Thursday morning a West-sponsored draft resolution on Kosovo's future status, which was formally introduced on late Tuesday.
The latest text, cosponsored by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Belgium, calls for further negotiations between Belgrade and Kosovo's ethic Albanians during a 120-day period.
The draft dropped a previous reference to an automatic road to internationally supervised independence if the talks fail.
It states that the Kosovo case "shall not be taken as a precedent by the Security Council" because it is a special case resulting from the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.
The document authorizes the European Union to establish a mission which shall take over the administration of Kosovo from the United Nations after the end of the 120-day negotiation period.
It also affirms the council's "readiness to review the situation further in light of those negotiations."
The cosponsors have yet to decide whether to call a vote on the text, which has been "put in blue," a UN jargon meaning a Security Council vote could be called within 24 hours.
China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, the council's president for July, said Wednesday it is now up to the cosponsors to decide whether to call a vote on the draft.
"At this stage, with the draft as it stands, the positions of the council members are still divided," Wang said.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on Wednesday urged Russia to play a "constructive role," or "Russia will be responsible for pushing this process outside the council."
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin dismissed the latest text which went through slight changes to the one he had rejected on Monday.
Churkin said Monday that the text needed "clarity" on the "core " elements, including measures to ensure "serious talks" between the two sides, the return of internal displaced people and the implementation of Security Council resolution 1244.
He warned that "the chances are zero" for the draft to be passed through the council, saying there is a "hidden automaticity " of UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan to give the province supervised independence.
Kosovo, a breakaway province of Serbia, has been under UN administration since 1999, after a NATO bombing campaign helped stop Serb forces from a crackdown on the province's ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the population.
Source: Xinhua
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