Verbeke: No deadlines for decision

Verbeke: No deadlines for decision

Johan Verbeke, the Belgian ambassador to the U.N. who led the UN delegation, said they will report to the Security Council next week on the findings of their visit.

But, when asked about the timeline to reach a decision on Kosovo's final status settlement, Verbeke said "we are certainly not putting deadlines here."

"Deciding on important issues should never be hostage to predetermined deadlines," Belgian ambassador and mission head Johan Verbeke told a news conference in Priština.

"Of course there are slight differences among us, but those slight differences, I trust, have been narrowed as a result of this mission," said Verbeke, who spoke on behalf of the delegation.

Negotiation is a natural process, he said. "You have to give it natural space and time in order for all parties of the Security Council to feel at ease with the solution."

Verbeke said that the visit to Kosovo bridged the gap between information obtained in New York and the genuine situation on the ground.

He added that he hoped the consideration of the issue of Kosovo "would start from Ahtisaari’s plan.”

Russian ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said he believed the visit would force a reconsideration of Kosovo by some Council members.

"I would be very surprised if ... members stick to their old opinions, which were based merely on reports," he told Russian journalists, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

"This is not criticism, but as a Russian saying goes 'it is better to see once than to hear 100 times'."

The United States says it expects a decision in May. The latest confirmation came from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried who said Saturday the drafting of the Kosovo resolution would commence in spite of “Russia’s grave objections.”

“Kosovo will be independent with or without a United Nations resolution, and Russia should back an agreement to protect the Kosovo Serb minority,” he said.

"We hope that Russia understands that Kosovo is going to be independent one way or another," Fried told Reuters in an interview at a Brussels Forum on transatlantic relations.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke told the Brussels Forum the next few weeks would be “a fundamental test of Russian President Vladimir Putin's view of his role in the world.”

"If he vetoes the Ahtisaari plan in the Security Council, there will be a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo. The United States will recognize it, I hope the same day ... Some of the EU will, some won't," Holbrooke said.

"There will probably be violence on the ground and it will be Russia's fault."

However, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told the Forum he expected a period of "diplomatic trench warfare" over Kosovo at the United Nations and suggested the EU should take the lead in seeking a compromise solution, which would take time.

Asked about Holbrooke's scenario of unilateral independence, he said: "That is playing with fire."