UN Security Council to meet on Kosovo

Jun 18, 2008, 18:06 GMT

New York - The UN Security Council will hold discussions Friday on the situation in Kosovo that will be attended by leaders of both Serbia and Kosovo, the United States said Wednesday.

'It will be an open meeting,' said deputy US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff following a council meeting to decide the format of the session and discussion. The US is president of the 15-nation council in June.

Presidents Boris Tadic of Serbia and Fatmir Sejdiu of Kosovo will attend and are expected to make their views known as the two sides remain at opposite ends of the issue of Kosovo's independence.

It will be the first meeting of the council since Kosovo enacted its constitution on Sunday to move its newly gained statehood another step farther from Belgrade.

Sejdiu signed on Wednesday a decree to open embassies in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Albania. Since declaring independence in February, Kosovo has been recognized by more than 40 countries, including the US and many European countries.

Serbia is strongly opposed to Kosovo's independence and is backed by Russia.

The council has yet to decide what to do with the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) deployed in 1999 to help the former Serb province establish democratic institutions and a government.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon informed the council last week that Kosovo's statehood and new constitution has confronted the UN with a 'new reality and challenges' that called for revamping UNMIK. But he left the task of reconfiguring UNMIK's mandate and manpower to the council.

He said in a report to the council that Kosovo's new constitution is 'designed in such a way that it seeks to effectively remove from UNMIK its current powers as interim civil administration.'

He said, however, that the government in Pristina welcomed the continued UN presence provided that it has only 'limited, residual tasks.'

The European Union is to replace UNMIK, performing an 'enhanced operational role' in the area of law and overall authority previously held by the UN.