Associated Press, Sep 29, 2005 10:22 AM
TIRANA, Albania-Albania's Foreign Minister Besnik Mustafaj said Thursday that conditional independence would be the best choice for the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Albania supports a U.N. resolution that removed Belgrade's direct authority over Kosovo and left the province's final status open to negotiations.
Mustafaj said achieving full independence would take time and the process leading up to it would need to be monitored by the international community.
Mustafaj appealed to the Serb minority in Kosovo to be part of the talks.
"The surest way to guarantee their rights today and in the future would be their participation at these negotiations" he said.
Kosovo, which formally remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, has been administered by the United Nations since mid-1999, when a NATO air war ended a Serb crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.