Big power envoys launching another round of talks on Kosovo on Saturday heard Albanian leaders saying that independence from Serbia was the only option, while on Friday in Belgrade they were told by Serbia's leaders that independence was only non-option, DPA reported. "Our stand is very clear, we will not negotiate the independence of Kosovo," Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said after meeting the three envoys sent by big powers to facilitate another attempt at a negotiated solution for Serbia's breakaway province. Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku warned the envoys against a "waste of time," saying that the talks cannot be on independence, but other issues where progress is possible. "I do not want us to waste the next 120 days talking about things that will not be possible. If we try to renegotiate status in this 120 days we will get nowhere and we will miss the opportunity for real progress in other areas," he said. The envoys, Frank Wisner of the United States, Alexander Botsan- Kharchenko of Russia and Wolfgang Ischinger of Germany representing the EU, planned to use the first visit to the region to lay down the rules of the talks. "We are not here to make proposals, we are here to achieve your ideas and to seek consensus," Wisner said in Pristina. But a consensus appears impossible, with Serbs and Albanians firmly on diametrically opposed positions even after a year of negotiations under UN mediation in 2006. The Albanians, who make up 90 per cent of the population in Kosovo, are becoming increasingly impatient to achieve independence, which they expected this year at the latest. The United States has backed a blueprint for Kosovo's gradual slide into independence despite Belgrade's angry protests, but Russia has blocked the plan in the United Nations, forcing more talks.
