UN chief hesitant over EU Kosovo mission
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon said Friday he could not yet give his blessing to a planned 1,800-strong European Union mission for Kosovo because of the international dispute over the future of the breakaway Serbian province.
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"The independence of Kosovo is unacceptable for Serbia"  Kosovo's prime minister vowed Thursday to declare independence unilaterally if internationally brokered talks don't 'open a way for us,' staking out a tough position as the latest round of negotiations on the province's future began in Vienna.Officials said a breakthrough was unlikely. Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians continue to demand full independence from Serbia, while the Serbs insist on retaining Kosovo as part of their territory.That deadlock raises the likelihood of a dramatic showdown in December, when 120 days of last-ditch negotiations called by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon expire _ and the international community is confronted with the possibility that Kosovo's Albanians will make a play for statehood on their own. Read more
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A revised plan on the final status of Kosovo is unlikely to overcome Russian objections at the UN, France says.
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The U.N. senior envoy who drafted a roadmap for Kosovo's future said Thursday that the chances of reaching a compromise between Serbia and the province's ethnic Albanian majority on the heart of the plan is "highly unlikely."
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But the leaders _ from central, southern and eastern Europe _ came to no conclusion on how to resolve the debate over Kosovo should be granted internationally supervised independence as an U.N. envoy has ... via PR-inside.com
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UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 (IPS) - After several closed door meetings over the last  few weeks, the 15-member U.N. Security Council has failed to  reach agreement on a Western proposal for the creation of a new  independent nation state of Kosovo.
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Kosovo Albanian leaders called  on the United Nations on Wednesday not to postpone a decision  on the fate of their breakaway province until after snap  elections in Serbia.
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European Union foreign ministers sought Friday to present a united front over the status of Kosovo, playing down divisions over how much autonomy the Serbian province should win.
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The European Union must be ready to guide Kosovo on an unstoppable path to independence after the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on the Serb province's future, the incoming EU presidency said on Thursday.
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United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was at pains to avoid controversy during a visit to Britain, one of the chief proponents of a war in Iraq that Annan recently described as illegal.
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon said Friday he could not yet give his blessing to a planned 1,800-strong European Union mission for Kosovo because of the international dispute over the future of the breakaway Serbian province.The EU wants to send a policing and administrative mission to Kosovo to replace the current U.N. force, which took control alongside NATO peacekeepers in 1999 after war ended between Serbian troops and separatist ethnic Albanians.'I will have to closely and carefully assess the situation as it develops,' Ban told reporters after talks with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency. Read more
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UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, pictured, has refused to talk of Kosovo's independence, instead urging more talks to reach a compromise over the most pressing issue left over from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.Comment
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The United States and Germany made one last appeal to Russia on the future status of Kosovo before deciding on Friday whether to shelve a U.N. Security Council resolution Moscow has threatened to veto.
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The U.N. Security Council failed  to bridge deep divisions over the future of Kosovo on Wednesday  and Western countries said they would take the lead in steering  the province to independence from Serbia.
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Russia's foreign minister said Friday that a proposed European Union police mission to Kosovo might be acceptable if it was approved by the United Nations and Serbia.
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With the international community at loggerheads over how to proceed, Kosovo's independence-hungry Albanians may be tempted to take matters into their own hands
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BELGRADE, Feb 5 (IPS) - The long awaited United Nations proposal on the  status of the southern Serbian province Kosovo takes it towards  independence, but not all the way.