Serbia slams EU demand to ease ties with Kosovo

(BELGRADE) - Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic on Wednesday slammed a European Union demand to normalise Belgrade's relations with Kosovo, saying it could harm further dialogue between Serbia and its breakaway southern province.

In the EU executive's annual enlargement report, Belgrade is required to make efforts to normalise relations with Pristina, whose unilaterally proclaimed 2008 independence it refuses to accept.

"Addressing the problems in northern Kosovo, while respecting the territorial integrity of Kosovo and the particular needs of the local population, will be an essential element of this process," the report read.

Tense northern Kosovo is populated mostly by minority Serbs who, politically and economically backed by Belgrade, refuse to recognise Pristina's authority.

Dacic said "normalisation implies the territorial integrity of Kosovo."

"Such a formulation could only be an obstacle to a continuing dialogue" held between Belgrade and Pristina under the EU auspices, he told reporters.

Dacic said he was "upset" at the report's recommendation and would ask EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele -- due to visit Belgrade on Thursday -- to clarify it.

"The question is if this is a softer alternative to recognition of Kosovo's independence. It would have been perhaps fairer if we had been required to recognise independence of Kosovo," Dacic said.

The report also said a "visible and sustainable improvement in relations between Serbia and Kosovo is needed" and that "this process should gradually result in the full normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo."

Dacic has several times said the best solution for Kosovo would be its partition between the Serb-dominated north and the ethnic Albanian-populated south under control of Pristina.

Both Pristina and the international community have fiercely rejected the idea.

Kosovo's independence has been recognised by some 90 states, including the United States and 22 out of the 27 EU member states.

Under strong international pressure Belgrade and Pristina have been engaged in a EU-brokered dialogue since March 2011 and reached several accords that would make the Kosovo population's everyday life easier.

The dialogue is expected to resume later this year.