Kosovo deadlock talks fail

Talks over the future of Kosovo have reached an impasse at the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said Wednesday, and Serbia's leader warned of a dangerous "new era" if Western powers recognized Kosovo's independence.

The United States and European Union members are at loggerheads with Russia, Serbia's historical ally, over whether Kosovo should be independent from Serbia.

Kosovo, a majority-Albanian province in Serbia, has been under U.N. control since the end of the 1999 war between the NATO allies and the former Yugoslavia.

"The parties have irreconcilable positions with regard to the final status," said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. "It is our judgment that the current situation is unsustainable."

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica warned that international recognition of Kosovo's independence risked undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of U.N. members, which he said is the basis of the world body's charter.

"If one puts that into question ... a new era and a very dangerous era in international relations may start," Kostunica said.

But Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke said Kosovo is a one-of-a-kind case "that does not set any precedent."

The disputed province is dear to Serbs who regard it as Serbian territory. But it is equally coveted by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Muslims who have a 90 percent majority.

Kostunica said his government would not go to war to prevent Kosovo from becoming independent, pressing its case under international law instead. But the prime minister said a unilateral declaration of independence would would violate the U.N. resolution that ended the 1999 conflict.

"Resolution 1244 cannot be changed by some countries or group of countries piece by piece," he said.

Kosovo has been under U.N. supervision and patrolled by a NATO-led peacekeeping force since the end of the three-month war, in which NATO warplanes pounded Serbia to roll back a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" of the province's Albanian population under former then-President Slobodan Milosevic.