Slovenia PM presses Kosovo, Serbia to attend Balkans summit

(PRISTINA) - Slovenia wants both Kosovo and Serbia to attend an EU-Balkans summit later this month despite their dispute over the status of the breakaway territory, the Slovenian prime minister said Monday.

"I would like to have (Serbian) President (Boris) Tadic there, he is a very important leader," Prime Minister Boris Pahor told reporters in Pristina after meeting briefly with his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci.

"I would also like to have there prime minister Thaci,"

Pahor and his Croatian counterpart Jadranka Kosor decided in January to organise a conference in Slovenia on March 20, aimed at speeding up the EU integration of Balkan states wishing to join the bloc.

It would be the first meeting of all political leaders of the region in the last two decades.

But Belgrade and Pristina's dispute over Kosovo's possible Kosovo at the summit has been a major stumbling block.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 and has so far been recognized by 65 countries, including the United States and all but five European Union members.

Backed by its traditional ally Russia, Serbia fiercely opposes the independence move, considering Kosovo still as its southern province.

Serbia boycotts all international meetings where Pristina's leaders are invited as state representatives.

Belgrade warned earlier it would boycott the Slovenia summit if Kosovo were presented as an independent state, adding it would take part only if Kosovo was represented by the United Nations' administration mission (UNMIK).

But Thaci said he would attend the summit only as a representative of the newly-declared state.

Pahor said the goal of the summit was "to get together leaders of all countries in this region, together with the leaders of the European Union, and talk about European perspectives of these countries in the future."