Ethnic Albanians arrived at the talks, held in a Vienna palace, insisting that their province be independent. Serbs said they could offer broad autonomy but wanted Kosovo within Serbian borders.

"It is evident that the positions of the parties remain far apart," U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari said. "Belgrade would agree to almost anything but independence, whereas Pristina would accept nothing but full independence."

Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, said he saw no signs of a breakthrough in the daylong meeting, but had not expected one.

"This is the first meeting of this kind," he said. "The idea of this meeting was to give the parties an opportunity to present their case."

The delegations provided their arguments to the media after the meeting.

Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told the meeting that his country would not accept another state created on its territory. Serbia claims Kosovo is the heart of its kingdom, and the medieval cradle of their statehood.

Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu countered that independence was "the beginning and end of our position," and that the will of the province's ethnic Albanian majority could not be negotiated.

Kosovo has said Serbia lost its right to govern the province after its former leadership sparked a war in which an estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians died.

Kosovo's status was last formally discussed in 1999 at the height of the war that pitted Serbian troops loyal to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic against ethnic Albanian separatists.

Those talks ended with no results, after which NATO air attacks forced an end to the Serb crackdown and put Kosovo under U.N. administration, which has continued for seven years.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 29, 2006
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