"I expect several initiatives, and one of them is the resumption of talks ... I expect other countries to support that initiative, especially Russia and China," Boris Tadic told a conference of senior Serbian diplomats on Sunday.
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia's President expects Russia, China and some other U.N. Security Council members to back further talks on the status of Kosovo, though the West says all avenues of possible compromise have been exhausted.
"I expect several initiatives, and one of them is the resumption of talks ... I expect other countries to support that initiative, especially Russia and China," Boris Tadic told a conference of senior Serbian diplomats on Sunday.
The United Nations and NATO took over Serbia's Kosovo province in 1999 after 3 months of Western bombing to prevent ethnic cleansing by Serb forces fighting a guerrilla insurgency.
With no compromise in sight after months of talks, the West says independence for the 90 percent Albanian majority is the only viable solution. Serbia refuses to cede one inch of its sovereign territory but offers full autonomy for Kosovo.
!ADVERTISEMENT!The issue is due for debate in the Security Council on Dec 19, in closed session, after the failure earlier this month of a second major round of internationally-mediated negotiations.
Tadic said Serbia has proved its democratic credentials, flexibility and fairness by offering models of substantial autonomy to Kosovo's 90 percent Albanians majority, but they insist on independence because they have Western support.
"As long as I am President of Serbia, I will never accept the independence of Kosovo because I am totally convinced such a solution puts into question the development and the future of the Balkan region," Beta news agency quoted Tadic as saying.
Tadic, who heads a pro-Western party, is running for re-election in a presidential ballot due on January 20. His main challenge will come from the camp of hardline nationalists, which includes the party of Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.
Kosovo Albanian leaders say there is no point in talking further with Serbia and are ready to declare independence in the coming weeks, assured of U.S. and European union backing.
Foreign Ninister Vuk Jeremic told the conference that "an imposed solution" for Kosovo -- meaning a unilateral declaration of independence backed by Western powers -- could roll back democratic progress made by Serbia since the late autocrat Slobodan Milosevic was toppled in 2000.
"Democratic values which our citizens embraced in the 2000 elections ... would be irrevocably de-legitimized if the independence of Kosovo were imposed," Jeremic said.
He said negotiations on Kosovo were totally undermined by Western statements indicating that the province would gain independence if there was no compromise by December 10.
"We must work together to find a way to change the frame of mind in Pristina, which says 'what's mine is mine, what's yours can be the subject of negotiations,"' he said.
But Serbia would take no steps to isolate the country.
"The last thing our citizens expect is for us to take a path similar to the deadly one taken by Slobodan Milosevic's regime, the regime which brought our country and the Serbian people nothing but shame," Jeremic said.
(Writing by Douglas Hamilton; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
