"It's not an issue of if, but when," spokesman Skender Hyseni said after a meeting of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership. "Kosovo will look at its own agenda, but it will certainly be much earlier than May."

Kosovo is widely expected to announce early in 2008 that it will formally break away from Serbia, but has vowed not to do so without EU and U.S. approval.

On Friday, a "troika" of envoys from the EU, U.S. and Russia reported back to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that four months of internationally mediated talks had ended in a stalemate.

EU foreign ministers were meeting Monday on the Kosovo crisis, and the U.N. Security Council is set to take up the issue on Dec. 19.


Agencies

Güncelleme Tarihi: 11 Aralık 2007, 09:54