The United States is prepared to delay independence for Kosovo by several weeks or months if necessary in order to win the broadest possible support for the move, US officials said Monday.
"We are still working in the Security Council to look at possible action," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. But he recalled that US President George W. Bush had already given his unswerving support to independence for the Albanian-majority Serbian province, despite Russia's fierce objections.
"There should not be any mistake in what we see at the end result," McCormack said. "Within the confines of that, we want to try to bring on board as many parties as possible, including the Russians in this process."
"If there is some time that might be needed in terms of weeks or months to discuss this, to see if we can arrive at some solution that gets the maximum buy in, then that is probably worth the time and effort." France last week called for a six-month delay to try to convince the Serbian government to back the plan, but said after that a firm decision must be taken.
UN special envoy to Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, has put forward a plan, backed by the US and EU, calling for the province run under UN supervision since 1999 to be granted independence.
But Serbia is vehemently opposed to the move, and Russia has threatened to use its veto at the Security Council to block the plan. Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku said in an interview Monday that the province would not declare independence from Serbia this year without US and European Union backing.
"We won't make a unilateral declaration without US and European support to do this," Ceku told the Financial Times. But he warned that, with no UN Security Council resolution endorsing independence, the EU had to consider how to assume supervision of Kosovo. "We need a roadmap that leads us quickly and clearly forward," he said.
Kosovo, which lies between Serbia, Macedonia and Albania in south-east Europe, has been run by a UN mission since Nato's bombing campaign to stop "ethnic cleansing" of Albanians by Serbian forces in 1999.