ST. PETERSBURG, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Serbia's prime minister said Saturday that granting Kosovo independence would set a precedent in violating international law.
Speaking at an economic forum in Russia's second city, St. Petersburg, Vojislav Kostunica said: "Creating an independent state of Kosovo on the territory of Serbia, an internationally-recognized state, would set a severe precedent of violating international law."
The United Nations has so far failed to pass a resolution on the status of the predominantly Albanian province, over Russia's opposition to a draft envisioning internationally-supervised sovereignty for Serbia.
Kostunica welcomed the position of Russia, whose threat to veto the draft document prevented a resolution that could "for the first time in history" help "seize 15% of the territory of a UN member state." He urged for a solution satisfactory to both Pristina and Belgrade.
Leaders of the Group of Eight club of rich nations, who concluded their three-day summit in Germany Friday, failed to break a deadlock on the issue. Russia, a long-time ally of Serbia, resisted calls for a vote on Kosovo. Moscow insists that the opinions of both the Serbian government and Kosovo's ethnic minorities should be taken into account in deciding the region's future.
The prime minister of Kosovo's provisional government, Agim Ceku, called Friday on world powers to either adopt a UN resolution granting the territory independence from Serbia, or allow it to choose its own path.
Kosovo, which has a population of two million, has been a UN protectorate since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a war between Serb forces and Muslim Albanian separatists in 1999. It remains one of Europe's poorest regions.
