Washington Wants Sustainable Kosovo

A Washington spokesman said the United States is working toward a sustainable solution to Serbia’s mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo.

Sean McCormack, spokesman for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters Washington is trying to accommodate the concerns of Russia and its ally Serbia but it is time to try to craft a solution that will be durable, the Serbian news agency Beta reported Wednesday.

In response to a reporter’s query at a briefing in Washington Tuesday, McCormack said he did not hear Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov say that Moscow would veto a U.N. plan giving internationally supervised independence to Kosovo.

Russia has expressed reservations with the U.N. plan worked out by special envoy Martti Ahtisaari that is to lead to Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, McCormack said, adding part of Moscow’s concern is a fact-finding tour of the Security Council’s mission currently touring Brussels, Belgrade and the Kosovo capital of Pristina.

McCormack said Rice is likely to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to exchange opinions on Kosovo during a NATO-Russia meeting in Oslo Friday, and probably in mid-May when she is to visit Moscow.