Kosovar Albanian leaders would immediately start talks with their Western supporters on steps leading towards a proclamation of independence and international recognition afterwards, a high-standing Kosovar Albanian representative said on December 10, as quoted by Reuters.
Asked to clarify recent speculations on the moment of the independence proclamation, spokesperson for the ethnic Kosovar Albanian negotiating team Skender Hyseni said it would be much sooner than May. All 27 EU member states, but one, were ready to accept Kosovo's independence without a UN resolution, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said on December 10, Dnevnik daily reported.
There is a factual unanimity for Kosovo, Bildt told journalists after the December 10 deadline to reach an agreement between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians on the future statute of the Serbian province expired.
The Swedish foreign minister did not name the country which still wanted a UN resolution before it would accept a declaration by ethnic Albanian leaders, due in a couple of weeks time.
Luxembourg's minister for foreign affairs and immigration Jean Asselborn said only Cyprus had a huge problem supporting Kosovo's independence.
On December 10 Kosovo's prime minister Agim eku called upon the EU to recognise the necessity of an immediate and lasting ending of the process of clarification of Kosovo's final statute, Associated Press reported.
eku made this statement in an interview for the agency, Dnevnik daily said. The Kosovar prime minister once again assured Europe of Kosovo's commitment to multi-ethnicity, democracy, international supervision of its independence, international partnership and a European future.
The agency said that Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership was expected to proclaim independence at the beginning of 2008.
I think Serbia has a choice to walk towards the future with us or to walk back to the past alone. I hope they will make the right choice, eku said.
On December 10 the EU member states would discuss sending nearly 1 800 police officers and jurists to support Kosovo's police and judciary, Dnevnik daily said.
The mission could leave for Kosovo at the beginning of 2008 to ease any tension expected after a proclaiming of independence.
The recognition of Kosovo's independence would provoke a chain reaction and would have its consequences on the Balkans as well as on other regions, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on December 10, after talks with Cyprus president Tassos Papadopoulos in Nicosia, ITAR-TASS reported.
Lavrov warned that if Russia's partners recognised a unilaterally proclaimed Kosovo independence, they would violate international law.
Russia will not do that, Lavrov said.
