Negotiations to settle the status of the Serb province of Kosovo will begin next month in Vienna, U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari said Tuesday, according to DPA. Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, said how to decentralize power in Kosovo will be on the agenda for the first round of talks, which Kosovo Albanians and Serb representatives will attend. He said talks in the past two months, mainly with Belgrade and Pristina, were aimed at starting the negotiations to settle the status of Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians have demanded independence from Serbia. He said Serbia would agree to "anything for Kosovo, except independence." He urged the Serbian government to be "realistic" because Kosovo cannot return to its past. He said he did not expect Belgrade to give in immediately. Ahtisaari said he also consulted a so-called contact group composed of the U.S., Russia, Italy, Britain, France and Germany that have an interest in seeking a settlement on the dispute of Kosovo. Ahtisaari said discussions on the status will go in parallel with the implementation of democratic standards in Kosovo. He said studies showed that Kosovo has natural resources, which would provide half of national expenses for that territory.
