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.

The top U.S. diplomat involved in negotiations on the final status of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province says United Nations discussions of the issue are proceeding rapidly.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has said that the Serbian government will fall if Kosovo gains independence.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has won agreement from President Vladimir Putin to tone down Russian tough talk in an effort to improve strained ties, though neither side gave any ground on major disagreements over missile defense and Kosovo.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Moscow Monday for talks on a number of issues which have recently soured bilateral relations, including a proposed U.S. missile shield in Europe, independence for Kosovo, and an alleged clampdown on democracy in Russia.

The United States and its European allies have circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would set Kosovo on the path to independence from Serbia. VOA's Peter Heinlein at U.N. headquarters reports sponsors are pushing for speedy approval of the measure.

Washington's ambassador at the United Nations says most Security Council members back a plan to grant supervised independence to Kosovo. But as VOA's correspondent at the U.N. Peter Heinlein reports, veto-wielding Russia remains opposed to the plan.

Even when Tony Blair leaves office, his legacy and his name will stay alive in one of the most corners of Kosovo. Crediting Blair with helping to stop the brutal Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians, the Dajaku family named their youngest son born shortly following the war, after him.

The United States and European countries are set to introduce a resolution in the United Nations Security Council calling for independence for Serbia's province of Kosovo. The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he believes a majority of the Security Council's 15 member nations will support the proposal for internationally supervised independence for Kosovo.

The U.N. Security Council is considering two separate proposals for a resolution on the future of Kosovo. From U.N. headquarters, VOA's Peter Heinlein reports one plan endorses Kosovo's independence, the other urges a go-slow approach.

The newly elected speaker of the Serbian parliament has said Serbia should seek closer ties with Russia and not the West. Tomislav Nikolic, of the nationalist Serbian Radical Party, said Russia would bring together "nations that will stand up against the hegemony of America and the European Union."

U.S. State Department officials say they believe obstacles to an international agreement on Kosovo's future can be overcome despite vocal Russian opposition to a United Nations mediator's plan. U.S. and other senior diplomats of the six-nation Contact Group on Kosovo met Thursday in London. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.