BUCHAREST, May 9 -- Albanian president Sali Berisha arrived in Bucharest Monday, for a three-day visit in hopes of persuading Romania to organize a peace conference on Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, said Albania's ambassador to Bucharest.
'Romania could be an intermediary between Serbia and Albania,' Albanian ambassador Fran Zef Cukaj told United Press International.
Cukaj said Romania had no 'territorial disputes' with any Balkan neighbour and that 'makes it the most credible political partner able to reconcile Serbia and Albania over the Kosovo region.'
Serbian-controlled Kosovo is on the verge of ethnic war between a strong 90 percent Albanian community and the Serbian Yugoslav authorities.
Two years ago, the ethnic Albanians held a referendum to elect their own parliament and government, but Yugoslavia refused to let go of Kosovo and strengthened its police rule.
'All we want is protection (provided by) the United Nations in the area, but the Serbs reject any outside intervention,' said Cukaj.
'Albanians in Kosovo are deprived of the basic human rights, like schools, and TV broadcasts in their language, while the authorities are bringing in colonists from Serbia and Montenegro to scare them,' the Albanian ambassador to Bucharest said.
Romanian officials have opted for a careful approach.
'We will try to play a sort of buffer between the two states,' said Mircea Geoana, spokesman of the Romanian foreign ministry.
'Albania is a too important piece in the Balkan puzzle to ignore,' he added.
The Romanian and Albanian presidents will sign a framework political treaty and three commercial conventions ruling out double taxation.
Trade exchanges have dramatically dropped from $100 million in 1988 to $3 million in 1993, but the Albanian ambassador hopes the first visit of an Albanian president to Romania after the collapse of communism would revigorate ties.
'I know Romanians like the Albanian brandy as much as we like Romanian all-terrain cars, and this may be an opportunity to please both countries,' Fran Zef Cukaj said.
