Serbia president rules out Kosovo recognition

(PRAGUE) - Serbian President Boris Tadic said Monday that Serbia will not recognise Kosovo's independence while he is in office.

Tadic's vow came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said last week that Serbia needed to improve its troubled relations with Kosovo in order to move forward with European Union membership talks.

"While I am president, Serbia will not recognise Kosovo and its independence," Tadic told journalists alongside Czech President Vaclav Klaus on a working visit in Prague.

"I do not believe that anyone else will do so after me," he added.

Out of some 120,000 Kosovo Serbs, roughly 40,000 live in the north which borders Serbia. Serbs in northern Kosovo do not recognise Pristina's authority and say they want to be governed by Belgrade.

Serbia operates parallel structures in northern Kosovo, such as post offices, schools and municipal administrations, and last week Merkel indicated those structures must be abandoned if Serbia wants to obtain EU-candidate status.

The Czech president declined to weigh in on the issue and said he did not want to push Serbia towards a particular decision.

"I am certain the country will make a good decision on its own," Klaus said.

The Czech leader previously voiced concern about Kosovo's 2008 independence declaration, indicating it could have negative consequences for other European nations.

The latest violence flared in northern Kosovo in late July when Pristina forcibly replaced ethnic Serb border guards attached to the Kosovo police with ethnic Albanian officers at two border crossings to enforce a trade ban with Serbia. One ethnic Albanian policeman was killed in the clashes that followed.

NATO said Monday that the situation in the north of Kosovo was still tense and it would continue to control the border with Serbia, scene of violent clashes last month, until the end of September.

Talks aimed at easing tension between the two sides are due to resume on September 2.