U.N. mission on Kosovo fact-finding tour

BRUSSELS, April 25 (UPI) -- NATO's chief in Brussels Wednesday said the alliance supports a U.N. plan that may lead Kosovo on an independence path from Serbia.

NATO's Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer advised in detail a U.N. mission about the Western bloc's protection role since 1999 to contain ethnic conflicts in Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province, the Serbian news agency Beta reported.

NATO's spokesman James Apaturaj said the NATO countries want to resolve Kosovo's future status through a resolution of the Security Council based on the U.N. plan worked out by special envoy Martti Ahtisaari, Beta said.

The U.N. fact-finding mission had left New York on a five-day European tour that should include talks in Brussels, Belgrade and the Kosovo capital of Pristina, the BBC said.

U.N.-led talks between Serbs and ethnic-Albanians ended March 10 after 15 months of negotiations without agreement, as Pristina insisted on independence from Belgrade, while Serbs sharply opposed the idea.

Ahtisaari worked out his own plan that would give Kosovo internationally supervised independence.

Serbia, supported by its veto-wielding ally Russia, talked the Security Council into sending its mission to Kosovo that could possibly lead to a new series of talks on Kosovo's future before the council makes a decision.