Rice, counterparts meet over EU Kosovo mission
LONDON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a number of her European counterparts met in London Friday over the controversial deployment of an EU mission of police and lawyers to northern Kosovo.
No agreed statement was issued but the pronouncements of several officials indicated deep divisions between Western powers and Russia, which is opposing the deployment.
"We want to see this as a gradual, orderly transition from the UNMIK role to the EU role unfold over the coming weeks," said a senior State Department official, referring to the UN mission to Kosovo that began in 1999.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner added: "I think there has been a prudent benevolence, a prudent optimism and an analysis which would not have been able to be done in such a positive way 10 days ago."
But his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, expressed doubts on the legality of the operation.
"Whatever new ideas are proposed which go beyond the mandate contained in resolution 1244 would require a new Security Council resolution," he said, referring to the UN resolution that created UNMIK nine years ago.
The 27-member EU decided to send a mission of police, lawyers and customs officials to majority Serb north Kosovo to prevent a split in the former Serb province, which unilaterally declared independence in February.
Belgrade and Moscow vehemently opposed the move.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, were part of the meeting.
Russia was not invited, even though it is a member of the so-called contact group on Kosovo.
Belgrade has decided to organise local elections alongside parliamentary polls on May 11 for Serbs in Kosovo, despite opposition from the United Nations and the Kosovo Albanian leadership.
