UN envoy arrives in Kosovo for four-day visit

Aug 22, 2006, 21:43 GMT

Pristina - UN envoy for Kosovo status talks Martti Ahtisaari Tuesday arrived to Pristina, capital of Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province, where he is to meet with ethnic Albanian and Serb leaders and representatives of the international community.

The aim of Ahtisaari's four-day visit to Kosovo is to improve the process of negotiating the future status of the province, which has seen little progress since it was launched in February.

The talks are being held in Vienna under UN mediation, with the first top-level meeting of Belgrade and Pristina officials occurring last month.

Ahtisaari was due to meet with Joachim Ruecker, head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, President Fatmir Sejdiu and the representatives of Kosovo Serbs.

Ethnic Albanians are the vast majority in Kosovo, forming around 90 per cent of the population of what is formally still Serbia's province, though administered by the UN since 1999.

Little progress has been made in bringing the positions of the two negotiating sides closer. While ethnic Albanians insist on full independence for Kosovo, Serbia equally insists on not losing its territory and offers wide autonomy instead.