BELGRADE, Serbia, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A Serbian government minister rejected any idea of forming a confederation with the predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province.
Serbian Kosovo Minister Slobodan Samardzic said he was aware of informal proposals coming from the European Union suggesting Serbia and Kosovo should form a confederation, the Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.
The idea of a Serbia-Kosovo confederation might serve as a compromise to resolve a long-standing issue of the future status of Kosovo.
In an interview with the Belgrade Vecernje Novosti daily, Samardzic said the idea was absolutely unacceptable for Serbia.
Formally, Kosovo is Serbia's province but it has been U.N.-administered since 1999, when NATO airstrikes stopped a Serbian military offensive against ethnic-Albanian separatists.
After Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia, threatened to veto in the U.N. Security Council a U.N. plan that would make Kosovo to independent from Belgrade, the issue is being handed over to the United States, Russia and the European Union.
The Serbian government in Belgrade said Kosovo will always be part of Serbia, while leaders of Kosovo's ethnic-Albanians insist on the province independent of Belgrade.
