(BRDO PRI KRANJU) - European officials hope Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic and Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci will sit round the same table on Saturday for the first time since Kosovo declared independence.

The two men have been invited to a debate on the Balkans with the 27 EU foreign ministers, who on Friday began two days of talks in Brdo Pri Kranju, near the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.

The two men "have not even been in the same town," one European diplomat said, adding that no one could predict whether Jeremic would agree to sit down with Thaci.

Jeremic is scheduled to have a working breakfast wit his EU counterparts and Thaci's office said that he would come to Brdo on Saturday to attend the informal EU foreign ministers' meeting.

Neither has made any public comment on the likelihood of their meeting.

The debate to which Thaci and foreign ministers from other Balkan nations have been invited is due to take place late on Saturday morning.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, confirmed that Thaci had been invited.

"Let us see if Mr Thaci will come," he said. "I think it is logical that someone from the Kosovo government joins our meeting."

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that if the two did both attend the meeting it would "without doubt" be a step in the right direction.

The Europeans hope to convince the Serb government, implacably opposed to Kosovo's independence, to resume talks on Serbia's possible future entry into the EU, frozen since the independence announcement.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he had been assured "there will be one room not many rooms" for the Balkans meeting.

"This is our backyard and we have to be extremely purposeful and pragmatic in the way that we seek to build stability out of the ruins of the former Yugoslavia," he said on the sidelines of the foreign ministers' meeting.

Most EU nations, as well as the United States, have recognised Kosovo's independence which Russia strongly opposes.

Even though Jeremic describes European recognition of Kosovo as "treason", he and Serb President Boris Tadic are among the most pro-European members of the Serbian leadership.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a hardline nationalist, is opposed to talks with the EU unless the bloc acknowledges Kosovo as part of Serbia.

The differences within the Serb government has led to the end of the government and fresh elections to be held on May 11.

The European Union believes that the best way to stabilise the Western Balkans is for Serbia, Kosovo and the whole region to eventually join up.

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