GORKI-8 (Moscow Region), July 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign minister said Thursday the latest draft UN resolution on Kosovo was simply a disguised re-wording of the Ahtisaari plan to grant independence to the Serbian province, which Russia rejected.
Sergei Lavrov said: "The problem of Kosovo's independence has not been removed from the agenda. The diplomatic rhetoric reveals a conclusion that the Ahtisaari plan will come into effect after the negotiations."
UN sources said earlier that the United States, France and Britain had drafted a new resolution on Kosovo, which does not automatically grant the Serbian province independence after 120 days of multilateral negotiations, as stipulated in the previous draft.
The previous draft was based on United Nations special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan to grant Kosovo independence without the prior consent of Serbia. Russia, a longtime ally of Serbia, insists on a decision that would satisfy both Belgrade and Pristina.
UN delegations are already discussing the latest draft, which has yet to be submitted to the UN Security Council. The third version could provide for additional negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.
A Pristina delegation accepted earlier in the day U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's invitation to visit Washington on July 23 to consider holding parliamentary elections in the predominantly Albanian province of Kosovo.
Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, said Kosovo delegates and Rice would consider holding elections either before or after the province's status had been determined.
Kosovo, which has been a UN protectorate since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign in 1999, has been seeking independence from Serbia ever since the campaign. Regional leaders warned recently that they may have to take the situation into their own hands if no decision is made soon.
