(AFP) – Feb 20, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Wednesday rejected comparisons between the Palestinian situation and Kosovo, after a senior Palestinian official called for a Kosovo-like declaration of independence.

Kosovo is a "unique" situation, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "It is not a precedent for any other situation around the world."

McCormack said the United States is holding out hope that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will result in a solution.

"The Israelis and the Palestinians have been trying for some time in the confines of the political process to try to work something out and come to an accommodation, a solution," McCormack said.

"The international community has spoken to that, as well. We believe that there is hope in that process. It has not run its course."

Asked why Kosovo had to wait just nine years under UN administration to obtain its independence, while the Palestinians have been waiting since 1948, McCormack said the situations were different.

"The situation in Kosovo had run its course, in terms of trying to find a solution, a negotiated political solution," McCormack said.

"We believe that there still is the possibility of a negotiated settlement" in the Palestinian territories, he said, citing peace talks held in Annapolis, Maryland last year under the auspices of President George W. Bush.

"Witness the effort that we put into the Annapolis process and that we are now putting into that process to help it work. So they are different situations."

However, in Ramallah, senior Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo told AFP that the failure of those talks in November to show any movement was precisely the reason why Palestinians should proclaim their independence.

"Our people have the right to proclaim independence as the people of Kosovo did. We were occupied long before the Kosovo problem emerged," Abed Rabbo told AFP.

"Measures must be taken with a view to a unilateral declaration of independence as Kosovo did, and the world will then have to ensure the end of the occupation of our land," he said.

Palestinians should consider this option as talks with Israel "have made no progress" since they were relaunched in November.

However, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas insisted he will continue negotiating and that he was "optimistic and hopeful" about the recently revived talks.

The United States and several European powers have led international recognition of the independence declaration approved by Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian majority on Sunday.

However, Russia has supported its traditional ally Serbia in the international dispute over Kosovo and has warned that independence for the province could boost separatist movements around the world.

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