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New Draft on Kosovo Introduced at UN Security Council


Western nations have introduced a new draft resolution on Kosovo at the United Nations Security Council.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Italy submitted the draft, which revises a version Russia rejected Monday. The sponsors say no vote has been scheduled on the matter.

The revised draft calls for four months of additional talks between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo aimed at reaching a mutual agreement on the province's future status.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Tuesday the 27-nation block might withdraw the Kosovo issue from the U.N. Security Council if Russia continues to reject a resolution granting the province supervised independence.

Solana said Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders could continue negotiations under the auspices of the six-nation Contact Group, where Russia has a seat but no veto power. The Contact Group members are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States.

Russia, which has a Security Council veto, has rejected all previous draft resolutions on Kosovo because they were not acceptable to Serbia.

Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since 1999 after NATO air strikes halted Serbia's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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