Serbia will push for a solution to the Kosovo problem following the example of Hong Kong, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in an interview with the Tanjug news agency on Tuesday.

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.

Slovenia is going to take over the EU presidency in January, and it sees keeping Europe united over Kosovo as a key challenge, the country's foreign minister said Thursday.

Serbia's prime minister accused the United States on Tuesday of doing everything in its power to stop Kosovo Albanians from accepting a compromise on the breakaway province's status.

The 15-nation UN Security Council once again failed to agree on a possible plan of action if negotiations between Serbia and its breakaway province of Kosovo produce no result by December 10.

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.

Little progress is reported in the negotiations led by Russia, the European Union and the United States aimed at reconciling the conflicting views of Belgrade and Pristina on the future of Kosovo.

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.

Members of the international contact group on Kosovo Thursday urged parties to the dispute to engage in serious and constructive talks as negotiations on the region's final status enter their final stage with a December 10 deadline looming. Serbia warned at the U.N. that an independence move by Kosovo would destabilize the world.

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.