Serbian and Albanian officials Wednesday received the revised version of UN special Kosovo envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan for the future status of the breakaway Serbian province, according to dpa. The revised document has been given to both the Serbian and Kosovar negotiation teams in light of the final round of UN-mediated Kosovo status discussions, scheduled to consist of a high-level meeting in Vienna on Saturday. Though there have been no comments regarding the new text of the proposal from either side, the changes made to the original proposal are expected to be minimal. The first proposal, presented by Ahtisaari to Belgrade and Pristina in February, envisages an internationally-supervised independence for the province. The ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo welcomed the plan, while Belgrade rejected it, reiterating its offer of widespread autonomy for Kosovo while retaining sovereignty over the province. NATO ousted Belgrade's security forces from the province in 1999, after bloody conflicts between Albanian rebels and the Serbian military, making Kosovo a virtual UN protectorate. While Kosovo's political elite, including President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku, have already confirmed their presence in Vienna on Saturday, Serbian President Boris Tadic is the only Serbian official thus far to confirm his intent to attend the final, high-level meeting. Once the discussions have ended, Ahtisaari is expected to complete the final version of his Kosovo status proposal and submit it to the UN Security Council for approval.
