MOSCOW, June 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia opposes artificial timeframes for settling Kosovo's status, a deputy foreign minister said Thursday at a meeting with Serbian Ambassador Stanimir Vukicevic.

Western nations proposed to the UN Security Council Wednesday a 120-day deadline for an agreement to be reached on the status of Serbia's predominantly Albanian region, after which a previous resolution leading to Kosovo's independence would come into force, unless objections are raised by council members.

Vladimir Titov told the ambassador that Moscow is committed to negotiating a solution with international mediation and under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, an eight-year-old document calling for a compromise between Belgrade and the province, "without artificial timeframes and automatism in terms of implementing 'postponed' decisions on Kosovo's independence," the ministry said in a statement.

The latest draft, written by the European Union and the United States, says that a plan proposed by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari for Kosovo's independence under EU supervision will take effect in four months, "unless the Security Council expressly decides otherwise after conducting an evaluation."

At the diplomats' meeting in Moscow, Titov received copies of credentials from Vukicevic, the first Serbian ambassador to Moscow since Montenegro withdrew from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The two parties also discussed other developments in the Balkan region.