Serbia hails UN Kosovo visit

SERBIA:Serbia has hailed a United Nations plan to send a Security Council fact-finding team to Kosovo as a small victory in its fight to stop the region winning independence.

Nationalist hardliners are poised to exploit the political turmoil that could engulf Belgrade's leaders if they cannot prevent the loss of Kosovo and fail to form a government before next month's deadline.

After addressing the Security Council in New York this week, Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica claimed credit for helping split the international community on what is best for Kosovo, where a 90 per cent ethnic-Albanian majority demands full independence.

"The simple truth is that the Ahtisaari proposal does not have the support of the Security Council," Mr Kostunica said, referring to a plan recommending so-called supervised independence for Kosovo, devised by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

"Since we clearly proved it as an illegitimate proposal aimed at amputating 15 per cent of Serbia's territory, which is in direct contravention of the UN Charter, it is natural that a significant majority of the Security Council refused to support Ahtisaari," the premier said, adding that he now wanted a "new international mediator".

Mr Kostunica was emboldened by the Security Council's decision to send a delegation to Belgrade and Kosovo this month, and his apparent conviction that Russia will use its veto to block any resolution on Kosovo that is not acceptable to Serbia.

But Moscow has been careful not to explicitly threaten use of its veto, even while urging the UN to find a solution on Kosovo that is amenable to both sides.

"If Russia doesn't cast its veto, it will provoke something of a crisis in Serbia," Ninoslav Krstic, a former Serbian security chief, wrote this week. Mr Kostunica is still in talks to form a coalition government with pro-western parties almost three months after an election that was won by radical nationalists. If no cabinet is approved by mid-May, new elections will be triggered, and the nationalists could secure an even bigger victory by exploiting widespread anger over the looming loss of Kosovo.