New York will host talks between rival Serbs and Kosovo Albanians later this month to try to break a deadlock over the future of the breakaway province, an official said.

Russia says it will accept the partition of the Serbian province of Kosovo if that is what both Belgrade and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority agree on. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remark today at a news briefing in Moscow.

Belgrade is considering all options for responding to a possible declaration of independence by Kosovo, Serbia's foreign minister said Friday, echoing the premier's comments after yesterday's talks.

International mediators say Serbian and ethnic Albanian officials have pledged to refrain from statements that could jeopardize negotiations on the future status of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province.

Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku says the Serbian province will declare independence unilaterally if current negotiations on its status do not "open a way for us."

Two of the leading politicians involved in the ongoing talks on the future of Kosovo noted recently that the discussions are likely to lead nowhere. There are perhaps some other basic points regarding Kosovo that have become obscured in the heated debates of recent months and are worth recalling.

Envoys from the United States, the European Union and Russia began talks today with Serbian leaders on the future status of Kosovo. The mediators held talks in Belgrade with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

What future for Kosovo? Early last spring, it seemed the formally Serbian province populated mostly by ethnic Albanians was poised to gain full independence, in accordance with a plan by United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president.

An adviser to the Serbian prime minister warned Thursday that Kosovo could become "a unique NATO state" if its status is decided on the basis of the Ahtisaari plan.

Serbia will not recognize Kosovo's independence in exchange for its membership to the European Union, the Serbian ambassador to Russia said.

The six-nation Contact Group mediating the future status of Serbia's Albanian-dominated province of Kosovo will gather in London Thursday, the British Foreign Office said Tuesday.

Serbia is ready to grant broad autonomy to Kosovo, but only if the province remains under Serbian sovereignty, the president of a parliamentary commission said Monday.