US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her Slovenian counterpart, Dimitrij Rupel, on Thursday to discuss a UN plan calling for Kosovo's gradual independence from Serbia, according to dpa. Serbia and Russia strongly oppose the plan backed by the United States and European Union. Moscow has hinted at vetoing the plan in the UN Security Council. Rupel told reporters after the meeting that his country would work to urge ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to resist calls for outright independence to avoid provoking the province's Serbian minority. The two diplomats also discussed Slovenia's taking over the rotating EU presidency January 1 and US President George W Bush's planned trip to the Eastern European country in the spring.
