(BELGRADE) - Serbia will decide this week whether to return several of its ambassadors withdrawn from EU capitals that recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence, its foreign minister said Sunday.

At a meeting Thursday the foreign ministry would propose that the government return those ambassadors to the EU countries, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told reporters in Belgrade.

The foreign ministry's decision came after a week of consultations in Paris, Moscow and at the United Nations' headquarters in New York, he added.

Serbia, backed by its ally Russia, is vehemently opposed to the unilateral declaration of independence declared by Kosovo's leaders on February 17.

More than 40 countries including most of the European Union's 27 member nations have recognized Kosovo's statehood.

The ministry wants to "normalise (diplomatic) relations with the aim of strengthening our efforts towards obtaining EU accession candidate status between now and the end of the year," Jeremic said, calling it a "strategic priority" of the new government in Belgrade.

Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic's government -- an unlikely coalition between pro-Europeans and the Socialists of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic -- was voted in by deputies on July 7, following a snap election won on a pledge to fight for Kosovo sovereignty from within Europe.

The minister said that the EU, following talks with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the current rotating presidency, had indicated a willingness to "negotiate" over the bloc's planned security presence in Kosovo.

"In Belgrade's eyes, this mission is only acceptable if it is the fruit of a deal backed by a UN Security Council resolution," he added.

The head of the UN mission in Kosovo, Italian Lamberto Zannier, would also be invited to "begin discussions on reconfiguring the international presence in Kosovo."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in June that its peacekeeping force, in place since the end of a 1998-99 conflict, would have responsibilities including those for policing, courts and customs transferred to the new EU force.

Jeremic underlined that the freezing of ties with countries from outside the EU -- including the United States -- who also recognised Kosovo independence would remain in force.

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