Serbian President Boris Tadic and caretaker Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica will go to Vienna Saturday to tell a UN envoy that they reject his plan envisaging independence for Kosovo. it was stated late Thursday, according to dpa. After meeting to discuss the UN envoy Martti Ahtisaaari's revised plan for Kosovo, the Belgrade leaders said that they were rejecting the draft plan as "unacceptable" because it violated Serbia's sovereignty by paving the way for Kosovo's independence. "The document ... was unacceptable for Serbia because not a single amendment (proposed) by Belgrade pertaining to sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia was accepted," the Serbian leaders said in a statement. The plan envisaged Kosovo's internationally supervised slide toward full statehood. It was welcomed by the majority Albanians in the province for the same reason which enraged Serbia. The two sides led futile negotations, mediated by the special UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari, over the past year. While the Albanians want nothing short of independence, Belgrade said it would "never allow dismemberment" of its territory and offered Kosovo only an autonomy. The final round of the talks, with little talks actually expected to take place, was scheduled for Saturday in Vienna, the venue of the negotiations held since early 2006. The Finnish diplomat has hammered out a draft proposal in early February and has revised it for Saturday's final, high-level meeting after which he plans to send the document to the UN Security Council. Kosovo's entire political leadership, awaiting Saturday with optimism as opposed to Belgrade's bitterness, was to travel to Vienna to formally receive Ahitsaari's plan. "What we can say about the package is that it creates the essence of the future state of Kosovo," President Fatmir Sejdiu said after Pristina negotiators met Thursday. Antisaari's plan was backed by the EU and NATO, as well as the big western powers individually. But Russia, which Belgrade hopes would block the plan in the Security Council, has expressed its reservations about it.
