Serb leader wants EU visa exemption to cover Kosovo

(BRUSSELS) - President Boris Tadic on Monday welcomed an EU decision to grant visa-free travel to Serbia, while hoping the policy will be extended to Kosovo, which he insisted remains a Serb province.

"Kosovo is Serbia's southern province and this is not a changeable position," Tadic told a joint press conference with EU officials in Brussels.

His comments came after European Union nations agreed Monday to extend visa free travel to Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, but kept visa requirements in place for citizens from Albania and Bosnia.

Most, though not all, EU nations have recognised Kosovo's independence from Serbia which the mainly ethnic-Albanian region declared last year.

Serbia is taking the issue to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a case which will get underway on Tuesday to consider the validity of the unilateral declaration of independence.

While stressing Belgrade's claim to Kosovo, Tadic added that Serbia supported a solution which would allow all Kosovans to enjoy the same visa-free access to Europe which their Serb neighbours, and much of the Western Balkans, will enjoy from December 19.

"We are going to do everything possible to provide visa liberalistion for all people that are living in Kosovo," he assured.

The visa move has been eagerly awaited by the citizens of Serbia, the largest of the three ex-Yugoslav republic's involved with 7.5 million people, but some fear it could ignite tensions, especially as there remains an ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo.

The EU failed to prevent the bloody break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s but the prospect of EU membership has encouraged reform and the bloc often makes such gestures to reassure Balkans nations about their future.

Belgrade's EU membership hopes remain held up by the Netherlands because Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic remains on the run, most likely in Serbia.

Kosovo's independence, opposed also by Moscow, has been recognised by 63 nations worldwide, including 22 of the 27 EU nations.