Russia and Serbia attack UN chief's plan for Kosovo

SERBIA:SERBIA ACCUSED UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon yesterday of overstepping his authority and jeopardising Balkan stability with plans to "restructure" the organisation's role in newly independent Kosovo.

Russia also condemned Mr Ban's plan to transfer many of the UN mission's powers to the European Union after Kosovo's new constitution comes into force tomorrow.

"It is our position that the reconfiguration of the international presence . . . must be decided by the Security Council," said Serb president Boris Tadic in a letter to Mr Ban urging him to seek a compromise solution between Kosovo, Western powers that support its sovereignty, and a Belgrade that is categorically against it.

"Until such a solution is reached, the international community led by the United Nations should keep a central role in the maintenance of peace and stability," Mr Tadic said.

Mr Tadic, who is seeking to forge a pro-EU coalition government under fierce opposition from hardline nationalists who want to freeze ties with Brussels, acknowledged that the EU had a major role to play in Kosovo, but rejected Mr Ban's individual authority to transfer powers to an EU oversight mission."The reconfiguration of the international presence [in Kosovo] . . . must be decided by the [UN] Security Council."

Russia has blocked all efforts in the Security Council to approve Kosovo's declaration of independence or allow an EU mission to take over from the UN team that has run the province since the end of a 1999 Serb crackdown on separatist guerrillas.

In the absence of a diplomatic compromise solution, Mr Ban announced his plan to allow the 2,200-strong EU mission to be deployed with many of the powers of the UN mission but without Security Council clearance.

"I'm aware this package may not fully satisfy all sides, yet it is my honest belief . . . that it can offer us a way forward," Mr Ban said after meeting British prime minister Gordon Brown in London. "My aim has been to pursue a modus vivendi that is acceptable to the parties and would be supported by the key international stakeholders," he said.

The plan was immediately condemned by Belgrade and Kosovo Serb leaders, who have vowed to sever political ties with Kosovo's central government and establish their own parallel administration in northern Kosovo.

"Ban Ki-moon overstepped his powers. The Security Council is the only relevant authority to decide whether the [UN] mission should be reconfigured," said Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's minister for Kosovo.

"As a response the Serbs in Kosovo will establish their own assembly of their own representatives. The assembly will be established on June 28th," he added.