Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic says a compromise solution can be found in settling the future of the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo.

Kosovo's leaders said they would participate in new negotiations - but they warned Monday that, beyond that, they will accept no further delays in settling the province's final status. And they pledged not to retreat from their demand for independence.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic was in Washington Friday where he met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other high-level U.S. officials, mainly to discuss the contentious issue of independence for the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo.

Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity regarding the future status of Kosovo, the Bush administration is stressing that it still supports a U.N. plan that would grant provisional independence to the U.N.-administered Serbian province.

The Serbian prime minister said Wednesday that the plan by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, which would have ceded 15% of the Balkan state's territory, has failed.

Co-sponsors in the talks on the status of Kosovo will continue negotiations within the Contact Group in Vienna Wednesday. Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the United States and Russia will meet for the first time after a draft resolution on Kosovo by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari was removed from consideration in the UN Security Council last week under pressure from veto-wielding Moscow.

The Serbian parliament has warned the United States and the European Union against recognizing Kosovo's independence without UN consent. Serbian lawmakers passed a resolution late in the day on July 24 promising an "energetic response" against countries that might recognize independence for the mainly ethnic-Albanian province.

Kosovo officials meeting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday said they will not declare independence for four months while negotiations about the Kosovo's status are under way.

The future of Kosovo tops the list of issues being discussed today in Brussels at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers. Arriving at the talks, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt urged EU unity over the issue, which he said is key to the bloc's credibility.

Serbia will revise its relations with countries that unilaterally acknowledge the independence of its Kosovo province, the Serbian ambassador to Russia said Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Washington is fully committed to achieving independence for Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province, despite Russia's opposition.

Russia's foreign minister said Friday the country's opposition to Kosovo independence without the consent of Serbia is based on respect for international law, not on Moscow's own interests.