Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Russia would need "several days" to study a U.N. draft resolution designed to secure its support for plans to resolve the dispute over Kosovo's status, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency report.

The United States, France, and Britain have drafted a new resolution on Kosovo, which does not automatically grant the Serbian province independence after 120 days of multilateral negotiations, UN sources said.

A Pristina delegation has accepted U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's invitation to visit Washington July 23 to consider holding parliamentary elections in the Serbian province of Kosovo, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

Kosovo leaders have warned the European Union they are losing patience with attempts at the UN Security Council to reach a consensus on the future status of the breakaway Serbian province.

A new U.S.-backed U.N. draft resolution on Kosovo would only lead to the province's independence and was rejected by Serbia on Wednesday, state’s prime minister said.

Further delays in resolving the problem of Kosovo could spark violence in the province and of elsewhere in the region, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Tuesday.

Veterans of Kosovo's guerrilla war have said they are ready to take up arms again if the province is not granted independence from Serbia, RFE/RL's South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic says Belgrade is "ready to make a deal" on the final status of its breakaway province of Kosovo. Jeremic made the announcement after talks with his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyannis in Athens.

Russia condemned Wednesday the launch of talks on a settlement plan for Kosovo without Moscow's participation, and suggested that Western nations are attempting to "unilaterally" push through an independence plan for the region.

Despite continuing international disagreement whether to give Kosovo independence, province's government on Wednesday launched a contest for a new flag and national anthem.

One day after the Group of Eight (G8) summit wrapped up in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin met on June 9 with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica on the sidelines of an economic forum in St. Petersburg. Afterward, Putin told reporters that it was "with pleasure" that he had informed Kostunica of the outcome of the G8's negotiations on the future status of Kosovo.

Georgia's internal reforms and the country's progress toward democratization were the main themes of a speech by Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli in the Czech capital today.