Envoy Albert Rohan said the talks were moved back in response to a request from Serbian President Boris Tadic, who asked for a delay to allow the country to convene a new parliament.
The talks will address a UN proposal that foresees greater autonomy for Kosovo, without explicitly mentioning independence for the province.
The top UN envoy to the Kosovo staus talks, Martti Ahtisaari, today said in an interview with "Le Monde" that it is "very difficult to imagine" Serbia's government, which rejects independence for Kosovo, reaching a negotiated agreement with the province's ethnic Albanian leaders.
Meanwhile today, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said granting independence to Kosovo would set a dangerous precedent for other breakaway regions.
"If we imagine a situation in which Kosovo receives independence, then the people of many other unrecognized territories will say, 'Why are we worse than them?' This concerns the post-Soviet region, and not only the post-Soviet region, but Europe in general," he said. "This could cause a chain reaction, in other words we must be careful not to open a Pandora's box."
Both Romania and Croatia today gave their full support for the UN plan, saying it will help stability in the region.
Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Posted February 9th, 2007 by Dinka
