Kosovo will never be an independent state, regardless of the type of pressure, conditions and threats to which Serbia is exposed, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in Belgrade on Sunday ahead of another round of talks in Brussels on the UN-administered province.

 

Addressing a convention of his Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), Kostunica said that Kosovo could be an independent state only if Serbia recognized it or if the UN Security Council violated the UN Charter.

 

"Both (Kosovo) Albanian separatists and states which sponsor our province's independence are more than aware of this fact. They also know well that every law -- political, ethical, constitutional and international -- is on Serbia's side," Kostunica was quoted as saying by the national Tanjug news agency.

 

"Therefore Kosovo will not be an independent state and will never be a UN member state," he said.

 

Kostunica made his remarks just ahead of another round of talks in Brussels between delegations of Belgrade and Pristina, under the mediation of the United States, Russia and the EU.

 

The DSS meeting was voting on a party program that marks a clear turn away from the West and towards Russia, which blocked this year apparently imminent independence for Kosovo in the UN, forcing more talks on the status of the breakaway province.

 

The talks were launched in August and were scheduled to end on December 10. Kosovo Albanian leaders, who represent the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority in the province, threatened to unilaterally declare independence after the talks. Belgrade has offered Kosovo autonomy but fiercely opposes its independence.

 

The province has been run by a UN mission since mid-1999 when a NATO bombing campaign halted Serbian crackdown against independence-minded ethnic Albanians.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2007)