KOSOVO FORMALLY MADE ITS PITCH FOR INDEPENDENCE FACE-TO-FACE WITH SERBIA ON MONDAY AT THEIR FIRST TOP-LEVEL TALKS ON THE ISSUE SINCE NATO BOMBS DROVE OUT SERB FORCES IN 1999, REUTERS REPORTED. THE ONE-DAY MEETING IN VIENNA PLACED THE ALBANIAN MAJORITY'S DEMAND FOR INDEPENDENCE ON THE AGENDA OF A U.N.-LED MEDIATION PROCESS THAT BEGAN IN FEBRUARY, SEVEN YEARS SINCE THE WEST INTERVENED TO HALT A WAVE OF ETHNIC CLEANSING AND THE UNITED NATIONS TOOK CONTROL. U.N. MEDIATORS CONCEDED THE TWO SIDES REMAINED "FAR APART". KOSOVO'S ETHNIC ALBANIAN PRESIDENT FATMIR SEJDIU SAID INDEPENDENCE WAS "THE BEGINNING AND END OF OUR POSITION." "THE WILL FOR INDEPENDENCE CANNOT BE IGNORED OR NEGOTIATED AWAY." SERB LEADERS AGAIN OFFERED "SUBSTANTIAL AUTONOMY". IT WAS THE FIRST TIME THE PRESIDENTS AND PRIME MINISTERS OF BOTH SIDES HAD HELD DIRECT TALKS SINCE SERBIA'S 1998-99 WAR WITH ETHNIC ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS. SOME 10,000 ALBANIAN CIVILIANS DIED AND 800,000 FLED, MARKING THE CULMINATION OF A DECADE OF SERB REPRESSION UNDER LATE STRONGMAN SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC.
