EU, U.S. envoys to work on Kosovo issue

NEW YORK, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Belgium's envoy to the United Nations in New York said the European Union has agreed to take the lead in solving the future status of Serbia's Kosovo Province.

The United States and the EU consider possibilities for reaching a negotiated solution to the Serbian breakaway mainly ethnic-Albanian province have been exhausted and new talks would lead nowhere, Serbian news media reported Wednesday.

Johan Verbeke, Belgian ambassador to the U.N., said the Security Council will cooperate with the EU and NATO in efforts to reach a solution to the Kosovo issue, Serbia's Belgrade B92 Radio said.

The EU is ready to dispatch a mission of 1,800 administrators and police to Kosovo, which has been U.N.-governed since 1999, when NATO air strikes stopped Serbia's crackdown on ethnic-Albanian separatists.

Since 1999, NATO troops have been deployed in Kosovo to curb ethnic conflicts.

An EU-U.S. statement, issued after a Security Council's session held behind closed doors, said Serbian and Kosovo Albanian leaders have stuck to their irreconcilable stands on sovereignty.

Kosovo Albanian leaders insist on independence from Serbia and the Belgrade government wants to keep Kosovo part of Serbia.