Russia has threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution that would effectively set the Serbian province, which has a majority ethnic Albanian population, on the path to sovereignty.
"Russia has maintained its position, but Kosovo is a European problem," Christina Gallach said in an interview published in the popular Serbian newspaper Vecerne Novosti Tuesday, adding the region's future was with the European Union, not Russia.
"The Balkans' future depends on Europe, not Russia. Therefore, the EU will make a decision if need be, but only with the UN Security Council's consent," Gallach said.
She said the diplomatic deadlock over the province's demand for independence was a threat to regional stability.
The UN Security Council started June 22 closed debates on a draft proposal from Britain, the United States and France that gives Belgrade and Pristina four months for more talks before automatically granting independence to Kosovo.
It is the third draft resolution based on special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan to grant Kosovo independence without the prior consent of Serbia. Russia, a longtime ally of fellow Slavic Serbia, insists on a decision that would satisfy both Belgrade and Pristina.
Russia has said granting Kosovo sovereignty would violate Serbia's territorial integrity, setting a precedent for other breakaway regions, including in the former Soviet Union. It has also expressed concern about the future of the impoverished province's Serbs and other minorities, about 180,000 in all.
Kosovo Albanians have meanwhile warned they will take independence with their own hands.
Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since NATO's unsanctioned 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a war between Serb forces and Muslim Albanian separatists in 1999.
Asked whether the EU would continue searching for a compromise with Russia, Gallach said Brussels had been working on the problem along with Russia for months, but it could have to cut the knot eventually.
