Big-power envoys launched what the West says are last-ditch talks on the future of Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo Friday by meeting the Belgrade leadership, according to dpa. Frank Wisner from the United States, Russian Alexandar Botsan- Kharchenko and German Wolfgang Ischinger for the EU, were given the task to steer Belgrade and Pristina to resolve the issue of the province's undetermined status. The envoys met with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica to discuss the form in which the planned 120 days of negotiations would unfold. Ischinger said that the talks on Friday were a good first step, and that the envoys were in Belgrade to discuss their tasks and goals in the coming negotiation process. "We will leave no stone unturned in trying to find a solution to the Kosovo status question and all other related problems," Wisner told Belgrade reporters. Kharchenko reiterated Russia's ongoing stance that it supports a solution based on a compromise between Belgrade and Pristina. President Tadic said that a unilaterally imposed solution for Kosovo's status would not be acceptable, and added that the final solution must be confirmed by the United Nations Security council. The three envoys are scheduled to meet Kosovo-Albanian leaders in Pristina Saturday, where a similar introductory discussion was expected to take place. Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku stated that the Albanian negotation team would present its platform for the talks to the international envoys on Saturday. Thus far, the form and schedule of the talks was apparently not agreed in advance and the outlook is grim as Belgrade adamantly insists on sovereignty over the hostile Kosovo, while the increasingly impatient majority Albanians want nothing less than independence. The US wants Kosovo independent, allowing Washington to exit the multi-billion-dollar Kosovo peacekeeping missions. Sovereignty would also finally allow Pristina access to international lending institutions and crack open doors to the recovery of the moribund economy instead of relying on aid. Wisner said earlier that Washington wants the talks finished by December 10. After that, barring an unexpected compromise, a solution would be imposed along the roadmap laid out by the UN mediator in the previous, failed talks, Martti Ahtisaari. Ahtisaari envisaged supervised independence for Kosovo, enraging Serbia, which angrily rejected his document as a legal violation aimed at dismembering a recognized country. Serbia has however yet not produced a viable counterproposal. Ahtisaari's plan was blocked in the United Nations by Russia, which strongly backed Serbia's position. Moscow said it would only support a solution accepted by both sides and its diplomats dismissed Ahtisaari's plan as "dead" ahead of the new round of talks. The EU, which was to take over from the UN in Kosovo with a supervisory mission, wants the upcoming talks to be based on the reality that Serbia has not controlled Kosovo over the past eight years, Ischinger had said ahead of the Belgrade visit. Kosovo was the scene of ethnic violence which spurred NATO into intervening against Yugoslavia in 1999. After Belgrade's security forces were ousted from the province, UN administration and NATO peacekeeping missions were set up. Belgrade has since had no say in the governing of what only nominally remains its province.
