U.S., EU, Russia begin talks on Kosovo

BELGRADE, Serbia, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- The United States, Russia and the European Union began talks with Serbian leaders in Belgrade Friday on the mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province.

German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, representing the EU at the talks, told reporters the troika should submit its report on talks with the leaders of Serbs and ethnic-Albanians to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by Dec. 10, the Belgrade B92 radio reported.

The troika is scheduled to travel Saturday to Pristina, 220 miles south of Belgrade, for talks with leaders of ethnic-Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo’s 1.8 million population.

After Russia threatened to use a veto in the U.N. Security Council against a U.N. plan that would grant Kosovo independence from Serbia, the envoys of Washington, Moscow and Brussels agreed to make a fresh effort to reach a compromise in the Belgrade-Pristina talks that failed to bring any result earlier this year.

Over the years, the Serbian government, representing 100,000 Serbs that live in Kosovo, has insisted Kosovo remain part of Serbia, while the ethnic-Albanian leaders would accept only Kosovo independent of Belgrade.