By Daisy Ayliffe - 24th July 2006
Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders struggled to strike a compromise at Monday’s high level talks in Vienna.
Speaking to journalists after the one day talks closed, UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari acknowledged there had no been no progress.
“I would be lying if I said so,” he told reporters.
The Serb army was forced out of Kosovo following Nato bombing in 1999.
Technically still part of Serbia, Kosovo has since been run by the international community.
On Monday officials met with the ambitious aim of resolving one of the regions most deeply rooted conflicts - returning Kosovo to local governance.
But the divides remain colossal.
Kosovo Albanian president Fatmir Sejdiu said the ethnic Albanians’ desire for independence was “the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of our position.”
But Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica warned that it was “not possible to find even a single precedent in European history which could be used as the argument to deprive Serbia of 15 per cent of its territory.”
France, Britain, the US, Germany, Italy and Russia also issued a statement on Monday - urging both sides to come to a negotiated settlement by the end of the year.
If all attempts at negotiations fail, the United Nations Security Council is likely to draw up a resolution that imposes a solution on both sides.
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