Global Policy Forum

By Edita Bucinca

The U.N. mission in Kosovo warned on Saturday that elections in the province might be postponed after it failed to agree with ethnic Albanian leaders on a blueprint for self-government. A U.N. spokeswoman expressed disappointment after a meeting between the U.N.'s chief Kosovo administrator Hans Haekkerup and local Albanian leaders, saying they had been very close to an agreement following an intensive week of talks.

``We've got to set the election date, and we were hoping for full agreement today, and we were almost there, but not quite,'' Susan Manuel told reporters. Haekkerup hopes to hold Kosovo's first post-war general elections this year, but has made clear the need to first define provisional institutions for the province and their powers. Asked whether the polls would be postponed, Manuel said: ''This is the danger. This is why he (Haekkerup) is pushing so hard to have an agreement on the document as soon as possible, because we've got to announce the election date as soon as possible.''

Kosovo remains legally part of Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia but has been under international rule since June 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces to end repression of the ethnic Albanian majority in the province. Kosovo's U.N.-led interim administration is tasked with handing government to the people of the province pending a final decision on its status.

Haekkerup To Un Headquarters

Manuel said there were no further talks scheduled and that Haekkerup would probably meet U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Security Council in New York next week. ``So we are somewhat disappointed because we hoped to have a full agreement by then. Of course, there's still a chance.'' Manuel said there was no disagreement on substance in the document. ``We're arguing over a few words and the order of those words,'' she said, without elaborating.

The Albanian side has been insisting that the framework should be called a constitution, that there be a Kosovo president and also that its people should have the right to express their will on the status of the province in the future. Kosovo's minority Serbs strongly oppose such demands, saying they would pave the way for independence for the province. The Serb side earlier this week boycotted talks on the blueprint, saying none of its amendments had been accepted.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said on Friday that Serbs could not accept either a Kosovo constitution or a president. ``These are the very clear positions of our negotiators when it comes to the legal framework,'' he told Serb state television. ''There is a line they cannot and will not cross, and they will not accept Kosovo's constitution and Kosovo's president.'' Most Serbs living in the province have fled since international forces took over in June 1999 after NATO's 11-week air war, and those remaining have been targeted in numerous revenge attacks by Albanians angry from years of Serb repression.