Kosovo's president Ibrahim Rugova, center, presides over the first meeting of Kosovo's negotiation team

Kosovo's delegation for possible talks on the future of the United Nations-run province has met for the first time and stressed it would seek independence for the largely ethnic-Albanian region.

After the meeting, Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova said seeking unification of Kosovo with Albania would create more problems. He says an independent Kosovo is the best solution for the Balkans.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Wednesday said he will soon decide whether to start the Kosovo talks.

Kosovo is officially part of Serbia, and authorities in Belgrade oppose any change in that status.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross says Kosovo and Serbian authorities have identified the remains of 200 more people unaccounted for since the conflict of the late 1990s and returned them to their families in the past few months. But it says there is no word on the fate of additional 2,500.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.