Clinton urges Serbia, Kosovo to normalise ties

(PRISTINA) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pristina on Tuesday after pushing Belgrade to normalise relations with Kosovo to ensure peace in the Balkans, even without recognising the independence of the breakaway territory.

Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has joined her on part of her five-nation Balkan tour, will meet Kosovo leaders on Wednesday.

The two are expected to push Pristina to step up its efforts for EU and NATO integration to secure peace in the volatile Balkans region.

"The United States urges all parties to implement the agreements reached to date (in the EU-brokered talks between Belgrade and Pristina), and to advance concrete measures to normalise relations," Clinton said in Belgrade.

Washington is one of the main supporters of Kosovo's independence, unilaterally proclaimed in 2008, but Clinton insisted that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina "does not require Serbia to recognise Kosovo".

"We understand the constitutional and political difficulties on that," she said after meeting Serbian leaders.

Serbia rejects Kosovo's declaration of independence, which is recognised by some 90 states including 22 of the European Union's 27 members as well as the United States.

The disputed status of Kosovo is the main bone of contention still affecting regional ties after the break-up of the communist former Yugoslavia, which collapsed in a series of bloody wars in the 1990s.

Talks between Belgrade and Pristina were launched in March 2011 under EU auspices but were suspended before elections in Serbia in May that were won by nationalists.

They finally resumed in October, with a meeting between Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci in Brussels.

Brussels has stressed that progress in the talks is a key factor if Serbia, which won EU candidate status in March, is to move forward and open full accession talks.

"Normalising relations is critical if Serbia and Kosovo are to achieve a future of lasting peace and opportunity, as their people deeply want and deserve," said Clinton.

"This was my message here in Belgrade and I will repeat it tomorrow in Pristina," she added, stressing that she would also like to see progress on key issues like "freedom of movement, customs, utilities, government services".

The talks are meant to ease daily life for the inhabitants of Kosovo, ethnic Albanians and Serbs alike, who face many administrative hurdles because of the disputed status of the territory.

Clinton's comments were welcomed by Dacic who repeated Belgrade's firm rejection of independence.

"We will not recognise Kosovo's independence but we are ready... for the talks and we think this should be linked with a speeding up our European integration," he said, adding that he had agreed with Ashtonthat they would meet again in November.

"They did not come to give us any ultimatums or conditions," he said.

"I am grateful they have come to talk about issues important for Serbia: the continuation and speeding up of European integration and fulfilling criteria important for Serbia to get a date for negotiations, internal reforms and achieving visible and sustainable progress in Belgrade-Pristina relations."

In Bosnia earlier, Clinton criticised Bosnian Serb leaders who have repeatedly threatened to break away from the war-scarred country, saying that its territorial integrity was not debatable.

She also stressed that the US-brokered Dayton Peace agreements which ended the 1992-95 war and divides the country into two semi-autonomous entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation "must be respected and preserved".

The secretary of state will end her tour in Croatia -- due to become the EU's newest member next year -- and Albania, which both joined the NATO transatlantic military alliance in 2009.

Of the six ex-Yugoslav republics, only Slovenia has joined the European Union in 2004, while Croatia is due to become a member next July.