NATO warns Albanians against unilateral moves

NATO warns Albanians against unilateral moves

The ministers also called on Russia to drop its opposition to Ahtisaari's Kosovo plan, "so that it could be adopted by the UN Security Council as soon as possible".

Earlier, Reuters reported that the U.S. and other allies expressed readiness to "adapt" Ahtisaari's plan.

"The U.S. and others said they were ready to accommodate some concerns about the Serb minority without compromising the broad principles of the Ahtisaari proposals," said one diplomat.

The diplomat said U.S. officials at the talks did not expand on how existing arrangements within the UN plan for protecting the Serb minority in the overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian province could be strengthened.

"There is no questioning of the Ahtisaari plan, but there could be some adjustments," a second diplomat said.

UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari warned this month against "tinkering" with his plan, which he says is delicately balanced between the aspirations of Albanians and the concerns of Serbs.

NATO foreign ministers had been due on Thursday to discuss Kosovo with their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Oslo after signs that Serb ally Moscow could seek to veto the Ahtisaari plan in the UN Security Council.

But the meeting with Lavrov was finally dominated by concern among allies over President Vladimir Putin's announcement that Russia was suspending its commitments under a European arms control pact, and Kosovo was barely raised.