Kosovo key issue in 2006: Italian FM

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

 

Source: Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Date: 27 Dec 2005

 

BELGRADE, Dec 27 (AFP) - The future status of UN-administered Kosovo province will be the key issue in international political discussions next year, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said here Tuesday.

 

"The issue of Kosovo will be the key one in 2006... Everything should be done to solve this problem peacefully by political means," Fini said after a series of talks with top Serbian officials in Belgrade.

 

In November, the UN's special Kosovo envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, began a mission to resolve the status of the province, which legally remains a part of Serbia. First direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina, the Kosovo capital, were expected in late January.

 

"The solution for the province should be reached through negotiations, with a European character," Fini said, adding that Italy would propose an "active political role for the European Union in the talks."

 

Kosovo became a UN protectorate in 1999 after NATO bombing ended a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists who took up arms against the regime of the then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to demand independence.

 

"It will not be like before 1999 and there should be no division of Kosovo," said Fini.

 

Fini will travel to Kosovo on Wednesday to visit Italian troops, part of the NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR) stationed in the province.