U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday during a visit to Albania that any talks on the future status of Kosovo must have the goal of "certain independence." Bush spoke to reporters in Tirana after meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

The European Union's enlargement commissioner said that the EU would resume talks on closer ties with Serbia. Commissioner Olli Rehn said he expected the first round of the talks to begin this month.

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.

The EU's long-strained relationship with Russia has hit a new low. On the eve of a summit in the southern Russian city of Samara on May 18, there is much that divides the EU and Russia: energy politics, a Russian ban of Polish meat, the future status of Kosovo.

The EU says it can restart talks with Serbia "very soon," once Belgrade has shown enough progress on arresting war crimes suspects. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was speaking in Belgrade hours after Serbia's parliament confirmed a pro-Western coalition government.

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.

After heading a fact-finding UN Security Council mission to Kosovo in late April, Johan Verbeke, Belgium's UN ambassador, acknowledged that Belgrade and Pristina remain firmly opposed on the issue of Kosovo's independence.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing on Sunday spoke to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon via telephone to discuss the future status of Darfur and Kosovo. In the telephone conversation, Li stressed that the settlement of the Darfur issue in southern Sudan is at a key stage.

The UN Security Council has agreed to a Russian proposal to send a fact-finding mission to the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo before deciding on its final status.

The UN Security Council has begun debate on a proposal to give Kosovo internationally supervised independence. The plan was put forward by the UN special envoy for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, after Serbian and Kosovar Albanian negotiators failed to reach agreement on the province's future status.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled today to start debate on a proposal that would lead to internationally supervised independence for Serbia's province of Kosovo. The session is due to be attended by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who is expected to reiterate Belgrade's opposition to the plan put forward by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

Members of NATO's North Atlantic Council are due to hold talks with officials in Kosovo today. The North Atlantic Council is NATO's senior decision-making body, comprising the permanent representatives of the alliance's 26 member states and chaired by Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.