U.N. council debates Serbia's Kosovo plan

NEW YORK, April 4 (UPI) -- The U.N. Security Council has begun considering a U.N. plan giving Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province independence amid Serbia's opposition.

The council met privately in New York Tuesday to hear the plan worked out by U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, the Serbian news agency Beta reported Wednesday.

The session that ended early Wednesday marked the start of diplomatic meetings on the Ahtisaari plan.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told the council Ahtissari's plan is unacceptable for the Belgrade government that considers Kosovo an integral part of Serbia.

He said Serbia seeks new talks on the future status of Kosovo and a new envoy to replace Ahtisaari to work out a new U.N. plan acceptable for Belgrade, Beta said.

The Belgrade government, representing 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo, and leaders of ethnic-Albanians who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's 1.8 million population, had held 13-month-long talks on the province's future status that ended without agreement early in March.

U.N. administrators and NATO protection troops have been deployed in Kosovo since 1999 to curb ethnic conflicts.