Top Serbian official issues war threat over Kosovo

The EU special envoy on Kosovo today demanded a retraction of a threat by a senior Serbian official that his country could resort to war if the mostly ethnic Albanian province declares independence.

Aleksandar Simic, an advisor to Serbia's prime minister, was quoted in the Belgrade media as saying that Serbia had the legal right to use war as a means of defending its territory if Kosovo, a UN protectorate for the past eight years, declares independence in the coming weeks as expected.

"Serbia has had negative experiences from certain armed clashes during the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, and this is why we are more prudent and cautious now, but, of course, state interests are defended by war as well," Mr Simic said.

Wolfgang Ischinger, the European member of a troika of international negotiators who have spent the past four months trying in vain to find a negotiated settlement on Kosovo's future, reacted angrily to Mr Simic's remarks.

"I believe it is inadmissible and intolerable that even before the troika report is out one of the parties expresses himself in this way," Mr Ischinger said in London today.

"I believe this is in clear violation of the firm commitments expressed by the president of Serbia himself at the conference table in a solemn fashion."

The envoy, who is also Germany's ambassador to London, said he expected the Serbian government to retract the statement.

There was no immediate response from Belgrade tonight, but a Serbian diplomat pointed to a statement on Wednesday by the foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, in which he declared his government would use all means to oppose Kosovo's independence except military action in any form.

Serbia came under pressure on another front today when the outgoing war crimes investigator for the former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, gave Belgrade until Monday to hand over Bosnian Serb fugitive General Ratko Mladic.

Failure to do so, she said, could block Serbia's pre-membership agreement with the EU that was initialled in November but not yet formally signed.

The new row reflects rising tensions in the run up to Monday's deadline for the last-ditch mediation effort by the troika, which also includes US and Russian envoys.

The troika report to the UN secretary general will make it clear that the mission explored every possible compromise solution without narrowing the differences between Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and the Serbian government.

Russia, which supports Belgrade's opposition to secession and which blocked a proposal for supervised independence earlier this year, has argued that negotiations should continue after Monday's deadline.

Mr Ischinger said however that further negotiation would not bring any convergence and would instead make the situation in the Balkans even more fragile.

"Today in early December the status quo is even less sustainable than was the case on August 1 [when the troika began its work]," he said. "If you offer opportunities for further delays you would increase, and not necessarily decrease, security risks and risks of instability in the region."

The looming Kosovo crisis will be discussed by a meeting of European foreign ministers on Monday, and at a European summit later next week before going before the security council on December 19.

The newly elected Kosovo Albanian leadership has assured the EU and Washington that it will not declare independence before those meetings take place but an announcement could come early in the new year.

"We are talking about weeks, not months," a senior western diplomat involved in the talks, said today.

The US and most of western Europe is expected to recognise Kosovo's independence rapidly, but Russia has vowed to resist a secession Moscow sees as illegitimate under international law.

The declaration of independence could also prove divisive in the EU as a handful of members, particularly Cyprus and Greece, have voiced reluctance to recognise a unilateral declaration of independence.

Serbia could impose a diplomatic and economic blockade on Kosovo, but the most dangerous flashpoints could be the Serb enclaves in the centre and south of the region, and the roughly 5,000 ethnic Albanians living in the mostly Serb north.

There is also a danger the north could break away from the rest of Kosovo. Nato has said it could reinforce its 16,000 force there if necessary, and Britain has offered extra troops if the need arises.

There are fears too that Kosovo's secession could cause a wave of instability in ethnic enclaves elsewhere in the Balkans and in the Caucasus.