Representatives from Serbia and Kosovo will hold direct talks without mediators in New York on September 28 within the framework of the UN General Assembly session, a Russian diplomat said Thursday.

New York will host talks between rival Serbs and Kosovo Albanians later this month to try to break a deadlock over the future of the breakaway province, an official said.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has asked Kosovo Albanians for "patience" in their quest for independence. Speaking after talks Friday with the province's Prime Minister Agim Ceku in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, de Hoop Scheffer said Western powers need more time to guide the independence process through the United Nations.

Authorities in Montenegro have arrested a former Serbian government official and police commander wanted in The Hague for murder and persecution of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday during a visit to Albania that any talks on the future status of Kosovo must have the goal of "certain independence." Bush spoke to reporters in Tirana after meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

New Defense Minister of France Herve Morin has made his first official trip abroad - to Kosovo - where he met his country's soldiers on Monday.