EU warns Kosovo against declaring independence

EU warns Kosovo against declaring independence

EU Kosovo envoy Stefan Lehne said it "would be a huge step backwards" if Kosovo Albanian leaders were to take the issue into their own hands.

"Unilateral action or other irresponsible behavior in Kosovo would take away all the goodwill that you have received," he told reporters after meeting the ethnic Albanian president of the province, Fatmir Sejdiu.

"It will not help you overcome the remaining obstacles but build many, many more," Lehne said.

Russia’s rejection increased pressure on Kosovo's main supporters, the United States and the EU, to consider backing a unilateral declaration of independence or risk potentially serious unrest among Kosovo's two million Albanians.

Washington has indicated it would support such a step, but the 27-member EU fears its fragile unity on the issue would crumble and it would not have a legal basis to take over supervision of Kosovo from the 8-year-old UN mission.

Lehne said a decision on Kosovo "needs the best possible basis, the strongest legitimacy available. And this is a Security Council resolution."

But Sejdiu insisted there were other options.

"We see that every day the chances of a joint resolution are being exhausted," he said. "We would like to have a UN resolution, but if not, there are other alternatives."

Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku on Wednesday warned of a "crisis of trust" among Albanians, and veterans of the 1998-1999 insurgency against Serb security forces have begun talking of renewed conflict.

Kosovo’s opposition Democratic Party leader Hashim Thaci reacted by saying that while Russia’s role was not to be ignored, it should not be “overestimated.”

Thaci was not prepared to offer a direct answer when asked whether Priština was ready for a new round of talks, but said instead that Kosovo will work to gain independence in cooperation with Washington and Brussels.

“It would be foolhardy for some political factors in Kosovo to undertake any steps without first consulting with the U.S. and EU,” Thaci said.

Kosovo Albanian activists have called a protest for June 30, on the eve of an informal summit in Maine between U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, when diplomats expect Bush to a set a deadline for independence.