Ethnic Albanians and Serbian officials will discuss how to protect the rights of Kosovos minorities today, putting the issue on the agenda for the first time during their United Nations-brokered talks on the provinces future status. Representatives from Kosovos Serb minority vowed to boycott the session in Vienna, Austria, saying they objected to being degraded to a minority in our own country, but a delegation from Belgrade was expected to attend.

The issue of minority rights is seen as crucial to resolving Kosovos status. Though still a part of Serbia, Kosovo has been administered by the UN since 1999, when a Nato-led air war ended a Serbian military crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. Ethnic Albanians make up 90% of Kosovos two million population and there are about 100,000 Serbs, mostly living in communities across the province. Another 200,000 Serbs and other minorities fled during the 1999 Nato bombardment. UN mediators are pushing the two sides to narrow their differences before tackling the ultimate issue whether Kosovo will become independent, as ethnic Albanians insist, or remain a part of Serbia, which Belgrade and the minority Serbs want.

Yesterday negotiators began the new round in the UN-brokered talks, but failed to agree on most points in discussing how much say Serb-run municipalities should have in Kosovos education, health care, police and justice systems. UN mediator Bernhard Schlageck said there was some agreement on the issue of appointing municipal police chiefs, but on other major stumbling blocks we made no distinctive progress. Veton Surroi, an ethnic Albanian leader, said his delegation would offer Serbs and other communities in Kosovo broad rights today, citing the need to create goodwill in the future independent Kosovo.The UN envoys hope to steer the two sides towards an agreement on Kosovos future status by the end of the year. Several weeks ago, the chief UN mediator in the talks, Martti Ahtisaari, brought the presidents and prime ministers of Kosovo and Serbia together for the first face-to-face talks on status issue. With the two sides far apart, however, Ahtisaari is expected to develop an initial proposal on the future status settlement later this year.