Serbia wants UN to speak for Kosovo at EU-Balkan summit

(BELGRADE) - Serbia will only participate in an upcoming EU-Balkans summit if Kosovo attends under the banner of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Sunday.

Speaking after talks with visiting Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom in Serbia's second city Novi Sad, Tadic said Serbia's territorial integrity cannot be put into question at international gatherings.

"Such principles cannot change," he said, the Tanjug news agency reported. "Serbia will not participate in any international forum that does not respect the principles of the United Nations."

"If the meeting at Brdo (near Slovenia's capital Ljubljana on March 20) respects these principles, then we will participate in it."

Kosovo -- put under UN administration in 1999 after a NATO air war wrested it from Belgrade's control -- declared independence in February 2008, in a move recognised by the United States and most EU nations but rejected by Serbia.

Its prime minister Hashim Thaci declared on March 9 that he would attend the EU-Balkans summit -- intended to speed up integration of western Balkan states into the European Union -- as the representative of an independent Kosovo.