Slovenian PM in bid to save EU-Balkans summit

(LJUBLJANA) - Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor headed for Brussels on Thursday to try to salvage an EU-Balkans summit due this weekend but thrown into uncertainty by a row between Serbia and Kosovo.

"I'll do whatever is necessary for the success of the conference," Pahor told journalists ahead of his trip to meet EU president Herman van Rompuy.

A diplomat warned Thursday that Van Rompuy may stay away from the summit due to "problems" between the states, with Serbia refusing to attend if breakaway Kosovo represents itself as an independent state.

Pahor confirmed he had met Serbian President Boris Tadic on the issue Wednesday and indicated he may also visit other Balkan states on Friday to persuade them to attend the summit being organised by Slovenia and Croatia.

He admitted though "we have to deal with a large volume of problems that nobody has managed to solve so far".

The summit is aimed at speeding up the integration into Europe of the states that emerged from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, as well as Albania.

Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's 2008 unilateral declaration of independence, regarding it as a province, and refuses to attend international meetings to which Kosovo leaders are invited as state representatives.

It has said it would only attend the summit if the Kosovo delegation comes under the UN Kosovo mission flag.

But Kosovo's leader, Hashim Thaci, has said he would only attend as a representative of an independent nation. It is recognised as such by 65 countries.

Of the six former Yugoslav republics -- Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia -- only the latter has joined the European Union. Croatia hopes to join by 2012.