Kosovo ethnic Albanian leaders called on the West on Sunday to give urgent support to their demand for the independence of the restive province from Serbia as the latest negotiations failed to produce agreement.
"After eight years of insecurity, the people of Kosovo urgently need clarity about their future," said a joint statement released by Kosovo's government and opposition leaders in the provincial capital Pristina.
The four-month negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, mediated by the troika made up of U.S, EU and Russian envoys, had "not achieved any result acceptable for Pristina and Belgrade," said the statement, adding that Kosovo was ready to assume all obligations from the Western-backed plan for "supervised independence" envisaged by former U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
Legally still part of Serbia, the province of 2 million people has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing forced the evacuation of Serbian forces fighting insurgent ethnic Albanians.
The troika envoys had been given a Dec. 10 deadline to complete the negotiations report, but they submitted a report to the United Nations on Friday saying neither side had given ground on sovereignty.
EU envoy Wolfgang Ischinger is to brief EU foreign ministers on Monday. Leaders of the 27-nation bloc are expected this week to agree that efforts to reach a negotiated solution to the Kosovo problem are exhausted, and offer to take responsibility for security and justice in Kosovo from the United Nations.
The statement said the Kosovo leadership and parliament "intend to work in close coordination with our international partners to settle Kosovo's status."
Kosovo is expected to declare independence early in 2008 with Western backing. The United States and most EU member states support statehood for Kosovo. Serbia, backed by Russia, warns it would unleash chaos in the fragile Balkans.
The next step is for the U.N. Security Council to debate the troika's report on Dec. 19 and try to agree on a resolution.
Source:Xinhua
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