Kosova: No Progress Yet
Little headway seems to have been made after the first round of talks in
Below is an article published by the BBC:
The leaders of
Foreign mediators said talks would now continue on 14 October [2007] in
But Serbian PM Vojislav Kostunica said he was disappointed by the stalemate.
The government in
The UN has administered Kosovo since a Nato bombing campaign forced out Serbian troops in 1999.
Kosovo leader Fatmir Sejdiu told reporters after the talks that he had proposed "a treaty of friendship between our two countries as two sovereign and independent nations".
But he said the Serbian leaders "held steadfast to their position and the views that they had presented several times already".
For his part, Serbian President Boris Tadic said
"We are providing the best possible conditions for the national Albanian ethnic group of Kosovo. We hope that we are going to achieve a compromise solution," he said.
A joint declaration issued after the meeting said that "the parties reiterated their commitment to engage seriously in these talks".
EU mediator Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters that both sides had hinted that "they wish this process to continue... This is a good sign".
But Mr Kostunica said he was "a bit disappointed" by the outcome "because this is the second round of talks that has happened in two years".
"I'm afraid the other [side] is encouraged by some countries, mostly the
Ahead of Friday's historic talks, Mr Tadic warned the UN General Assembly of unforeseeable consequences if Kosovo declared independence unilaterally.
He clearly reaffirmed his country's position that an independent Kosovo would be unacceptable.
And he warned that if there was a one-sided recognition of that independence, it would set a precedent, with separatist movements everywhere seizing on it.
Ahead of the talks the so-called Contact Group - made up of the
Kosovo's quest for independence has the backing of the