New Kosovo talks in September?

New Kosovo talks in September?

The report added that the U.S. and Russia will also send their envoys for the talks.

The same sources said that the ministers focused their attention on what the EU should do to encourage the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština.

It was said that Washington urged for the negotiations to commence on August 1 in order to end by the end of this year.

The Contact Group mediators would first employ shuttle diplomacy to maintain contact with Belgrade and Priština, and one of the ideas is to summon both sides to Brussels for the direct negotiations.

“An international troika, including the European Union, Russia and the United States, should take charge of discussions on the final status of Kosovo,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Monday.

With time running out on a decision on the future of the province, Steinmeier said he wanted discussions on Kosovo to be led by a small team rather than the six-nation Contract Group composed of the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia.

"I favor the concept of an international troika, made up of the US, Russia and EU, so with that we would have three international partners to negotiate with Belgrade and Priština," he told reporters.

Steinmeier said that such a troika offered the "best chance" to secure a so far elusive deal on Kosovo.

Ahead of the meeting, European diplomats have said that there was room to maneuver despite fixed and diametrically opposed standings of the two sides.

The sources stated that finding a Kosovo status solution will remain a dificult task, and that there are no indications of events moving in a positive direction.

They also said that a unilateral decision on the province's status could result if no breakthroughs are made in the talks.

Brussels believes that this would be very negative for Kosovo because that process would also prove "very long and hard".

Such a move would also be difficult for Serbia, according to EU officials, who added that it was very hard to imagine that the EU would not take action if no progress is made after four months of added negotiations.

EU sources stated that Kosovo cannot solve its status question without the EU, and that the democratic leaders of Serbia stress that Serbia sees itself as a future EU member country.