The U.N. envoy for Kosovo said on Friday he was open to "adjustments" to his plan paving the way for independence for the Serbian province but expected no sudden agreement between bitterly opposed Serbs and Albanians, according to Reuters. Martti Ahtisaari said he wanted consultations opening in Vienna on Feb. 21 to give Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who want independence, the chance to reach agreement with Serbs who adamantly oppose it. Ahtisaari, whose draft plan for the future of Kosovo would set the ethnic Albanian-dominated province on a path to statehood, told a news conference in Brussels he was prepared to consider "adjustments" to it if both sides agreed. But he added: "I have my doubts and I don't believe in miracles." Ahtisaari stressed this could not be an "eternal process" and added: "It can't be a consultative process where one comes with the idea and the other comes with a totally opposite idea which leaves us there in the middle." If the two parties fail to agree on the plan it could be imposed by the U.N. Security Council. However Serb ally Russia, which holds a veto on the Security Council, has warned it is against an imposed solution. Ahtisaari spoke after meeting ambassadors from the 26 NATO states and representatives of other states contributing to the international security force in Kosovo, which has been a de facto U.N. protectorate for the past eight years. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the same news conference NATO states had expressed "very strong support" for Ahtisaari's plan and his aim of reaching a solution for Kosovo in a timely manner. On Thursday, Scheffer visited Kosovo and appealed to Serbia to engage constructively in the U.N.-led process. He said he was not swayed by the Serbian parliament's adoption of a resolution on Wednesday rejecting Ahtisaari's plan. NATO leads 16,500 soldiers from 38 nations in Kosovo, where the alliance staged an 11-week bombing campaign in 1999 to drive out Serbian forces accused of atrocities against Albanian civilians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.
