West, Russia present rival UN Kosovo plans

West, Russia present rival UN Kosovo plans

The key point in the Russian paper is an acknowledgment "of the inconclusiveness up till now of the political progress to determine Kosovo's future status and of the necessity to continue negotiations between Belgrade and Priština with balanced international mediation primarily focused on protection of minority rights."

The United States and European members of the Security Council -- France, Britain, Italy, Belgium and Slovakia -- as well as Germany, which holds the current EU presidency, circulated 13 points of "possible elements of a new UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo."

A future resolution would be under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which would make provisions mandatory.

The key measure is an endorsement of recommendations for Kosovo's future status as drawn up by UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari, which would give virtual independence to Kosovo under European Union auspices.

In light of Serbia's strong opposition to the Ahtisaari’s plan, the Western paper says that enacting measures on Kosovo against the will of Belgrade is a "special case" because of "the violence and repression of the 1990s."

The measures also call for the "urgent necessity" for more progress on the return of refugees and those uprooted from their homes, mainly minority Serbs.

And the Western draft would replace most of the provisions laid down in a 1999 council resolution 1244 on setting standards for minority rights and curbing violence.

Russia has maintained that these demands had not been fulfilled and the final status of the province could not be decided before then.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, the current Security Council president, confirmed distribution of the Western paper on Friday and downplayed threats of a veto by Russia.

"They have not made that threat to me. We are working with them," he told reporters.

A council resolution would require nine votes in favor and no veto from the five permanent members in the 15-nation body.

In Priština, European Union envoy Stefan Lehne said work on a draft resolution "will take some time."

"There will be all sorts of international meetings to try to overcome the obstacles towards the resolution," Lehne said.

Analysts believe the issue could come to a head around the time the Group of Eight industrial nations meet in Germany on June 6-8.