EU agrees to send mission to Kosovo

By Ingrid Melander and Mark John

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders agreed on Friday to send administrators and police to Kosovo ahead of an expected declaration of independence from Serbia.

In a bid to soothe Balkan tensions over Kosovo's push for independence, they also offered Serbia a fast-track route to joining the bloc once it met conditions for signing a first-level agreement on closer ties.

But Belgrade bristled at suggestions that the move was designed to compensate it for the looming loss of Kosovo, the majority Albanian province. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said any such trade-off would be "an indecent proposal".

EU leaders declared after a one-day summit that negotiations on Kosovo's future were exhausted, the status quo was untenable and there was a need to move towards a Kosovo settlement. They stopped short of endorsing independence.

"We took a political decision to send an ESDP mission to Kosovo. This is the clearest signal the EU could possibly give that Europe intends to lead on Kosovo and the future of the region," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, the summit chairman, told a news conference.

ESDP is the European Security and Defence Policy. The 1,800-strong mission involves police, justice officials and civilian administrators.

But when asked whether and when the EU would recognize Kosovo's independence, Socrates said talks on that issue were taking place at the United Nations.

"The EU is not forgetting its responsibilities in this area. We are talking in terms of action and not inaction," he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters the EU had "a difficulty with Kosovo, which everybody can see will be independent".

Diplomats said Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Romania all object to recognizing Kosovo's sovereignty without a U.N. Security Council resolution.

"ON A PLANE"?

A day after signing a treaty to end a long institutional stalemate, EU leaders switched focus to challenges posed by the Balkans -- a test of the EU's hopes of strengthening its foreign policy clout -- and by globalization and immigration.

On Serbia's bid to join the 27-nation bloc, the final summit communique said: "(The European Council) reiterated its confidence that progress on the road towards the EU, including candidate status, can be accelerated."

Pro-EU moderates in Belgrade want EU candidate status by the end of next year, a timeframe EU Enlargement Commission Olli Rehn said last month was ambitious but feasible.

Normally, it takes up to two years for Brussels to grant candidate status to an aspirant after signing a Stabilisation and Accession Agreement (SAA), the first rung on the EU ladder.