Kosovo ready for dialogue with Serbia after UN vote: FM

(PRISTINA) - Kosovo is ready for dialogue with Belgrade after a UN resolution recognising a world court's ruling that its declaration of independence did not violate international law, a top official said Friday.

"The battle is won," Kosovo Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni said.

"Definitively, it is very good news for Kosovo to have a UN resolution which respects and adopts the opinion of the ICJ (International Court of Justice)," Hyseni told Kosovo's public broadcaster RTK.

The UN General Assembly on Thursday passed a landmark resolution calling for dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo with the EU mediation and without mentioning the status of Kosovo.

"The Republic of Kosovo absolutely welcomes the beginning of a process of cooperation with Serbia," Hyseni said, ruling out possibility of renewal of any status talks.

"The talks will be exclusively about cooperation in fields of reciprocal interest. There will never be talks about the status, partition or internal order of Kosovo, which are Kosovo's red lines," he said.

The EU agreed to foster "a process of dialogue between the parties" to bolster security in the Balkans and help Serbia and Kosovo in their efforts to join the 27-nation bloc, he said.

"Kosovo is leaving the framework of the UN and is crossing towards the place where its place is, in Europe and in the EU," Hyseni said.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, nine years after the war by Serbian forces against ethnic Albanian separatists, which ended with the establishment of an UN administration over the territory.

Serbia has refused ever since to recognize the move but so far 70 countries recognised the newly declared country, including the US and the majority of the EU.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a non-binding opinion in July that Kosovo's declaration of independence did not violate international law.