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Kosovo to hold parliamentary elections in November 2007

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BELGRADE, July 26 (RIA Novosti) - Parliamentary elections in Kosovo and polls for local legislatures will be held in November, but should not affect negotiations on the status of the Serbian province, the Belgrade Beta news agency said Thursday.

The agreement was reached in Pristina between the head of the UN administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), Joachim Ruecker, and a Kosovo delegation.

Ruecker said the decision would be reviewed if there was an indication in the coming weeks that elections could hamper negotiations on the status of Serbia's predominantly Albanian province, although he believed the two processes could develop in parallel.

The UN official said Kosovo status was an obvious priority, and neither side in the negotiations should use the elections as a pretext for delaying moves to decide Kosovo's future.

Determining the status of the province has been on the international agenda since NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against the former Yugoslavia ended a conflict between Serb forces and Muslim Albanian separatists in 1999. The region has remained a UN protectorate ever since.

The United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia, members of the Contact Group for Kosovo, should arrange a new round of direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina.

Moscow has repeatedly said a solution must be based on a compromise between Belgrade and Pristina, and that the position of ethnic minorities in the region should also be considered.

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