BELGRADE, August 12 (RIA Novosti) - The talks on the status of the Serbian province of Kosovo will be direct and will exclude any pre-set options, Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic said Sunday.

Ivanovic who leads the party called the Serbian List for Kosovo spoke August 12 after his meeting with a troika of envoys from the European Union, Russia and the United States who are on a three-day visit to Belgrade and Pristina to encourage a compromise between Serbia and its secessionist Albanian-dominated province.

Ivanovic also said the talks would not be limited to 120 days as Kosovo Albanians wanted. This deadline will only be used for mediators to submit their report on the Kosovo talks to the UN Secretary-General, he said.

The Kosovo province has remained a UN protectorate since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a conflict between Serb forces and Muslim Albanian separatists in 1999.

A plan proposed by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari for Kosovo's independence is supported by Washington and opposed by Belgrade and its long-standing ally Moscow, which say it would destabilize Europe, serving as a precedent for other volatile regions.

Belgrade, in turn, currently offers Kosovo as wide autonomy as possible in international relations.