Serbia said on Monday it had "fundamental objections" to a 14-point framework for the future of Kosovo and insisted mediators explicitly rule out a unilateral declaration of independence by the province.

Russia is against imposing timeframes on negotiations on the status of Serbia's predominantly Albanian region of Kosovo, the foreign minister said Monday.

Leaders of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province have urged residents to refrain from violence after a public television station showed armed members of a banned ethnic-Albanian militant group.

An opinion poll says that as many as 41% of Serbs would rather keep the Kosovo province within the country than join the European Union. A total of 1630 Serbian citizens took part in the survey, conducted by the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) in early September.

The U.N. secretary general said in a report Monday that delays in resolving Kosovo's status could undermine the work of the U.N. in the province and even make it instable.

Serbia and its breakaway province of Kosovo held the first round of their first direct talks Friday with international mediators participating but failed to reach any agreement.

The European Union is urging a speedy investigation of the deadly attack in the centre of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, early Monday, an EU spokeswoman said. A bomb explosion struck a shopping area on Bill Clinton Boulevard, killing two people and injuring at least 11.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner Friday at the State Department for talks expected to include such issues as Iran, Kosovo and Sudan's Darfur region.

Any proclamation of independence by Albanian-dominated Kosovo from Serbia could trigger a chain reaction around the globe, Russia's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Britain's Foreign Office said that the U.S., European Union and Russian envoys had reopened talks with Serbian officials Tuesday over the future status of the disputed province of Kosovo.

The situation in Kosovo was high on the agenda when President George Bush met Monday with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Kosovo's Prime Minister set the scene for continued standoff over the political status of the contested province Monday by refusing to consider any solution other than independence at meetings this week.