(LJUBLJANA) - The international community should allow Serbia and Kosovo to reach a solution on the Serbian province's status by themselves without setting a date for an end to negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here Wednesday.

"We have to understand clearly that the two sides alone have to come to a solution," Lavrov told a joint news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Dimitrij Rupel.

He added that current Kosovo negotiations under the helm of the international troika of EU, Russian and US mediators "have set the foundations for reaching a negotiatied solution without prejudging the result or setting a date for the conclusion of negotiations."

Lavrov warned that it would be counter-productive to back the Kosovo Albanian majority's plan to declare independence unilaterally if current negotiations fail to produce a result by December 10, a date fixed by the troika for ending talks.

"We have already noticed among our European colleagues some concern over the posible consequences of an eventual unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence," Lavrov said during his brief visit to Slovenia, which takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency in January.

He added that if the ethnic Albanian majority declared the province's independence, that would not only "affect Kosovo but also parts of Serbia and the Balkans as a whole."

The Russian minister compared Kosovo to the contentious Iranian nuclear issue and called on the various parties to try harder to reach a solution rather than adopt a defeatist attitude.

"If we continue saying that Kosovo's independence can't be avoided and that sanctions against Iran can't be avoided either, we will only worsen the situation. Like in the case of Kosovo, in that of Iran we have to continue giving positive stimulations," he said.

Britain, France, Germany and the United States back sanctions if Iran does not halt its uranium enrichment programme, but China and Russia have expressed doubts over the effectiveness of such a measure.

The head of the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is due to publish an eagerly-awaited report on Iran's disputed nuclear activities, after which "we will all together, not unilaterally, decide how we could fulfill IAEA and UN recommendations," Lavrov said.

"We all have to concentrate on a positive approach to identify the real questions and not, instead, make different forecasts," he warned.

The West charges that Iran is trying to build atomic weapons but Tehran says its programme is solely for civilian energy purposes.

bk-cn/ssw/mb

Slovenia-Russia-Kosovo-Serbia-EU

Lavrov urges direct Serbia-Kosovo talks and no time limits

=(PICTURE)=

LJUBLJANA, Nov 14, 2007 (AFP) - The international community should allow Serbia and Kosovo to reach a solution on the Serbian province's status by themselves without setting a date for an end to negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here Wednesday.

"We have to understand clearly that the two sides alone have to come to a solution," Lavrov told a joint news conference with his Slovenian counterpart Dimitrij Rupel.

He added that current Kosovo negotiations under the helm of the international troika of EU, Russian and US mediators "have set the foundations for reaching a negotiatied solution without prejudging the result or setting a date for the conclusion of negotiations."

Lavrov warned that it would be counter-productive to back the Kosovo Albanian majority's plan to declare independence unilaterally if current negotiations fail to produce a result by December 10, a date fixed by the troika for ending talks.

"We have already noticed among our European colleagues some concern over the posible consequences of an eventual unilateral declaration of Kosovo's independence," Lavrov said during his brief visit to Slovenia, which takes over the six-month rotating EU presidency in January.

He added that if the ethnic Albanian majority declared the province's independence, that would not only "affect Kosovo but also parts of Serbia and the Balkans as a whole."

Text and Picture Copyright 2007 AFP. All other Copyright 2007 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.