Bush says U.N. must act now on Kosovo
ROME (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Saturday the U.N. Security Council must act now on a plan to grant Kosovo supervised independence, which Russia opposes.
The Group of Eight summit in Germany that ended on Friday failed to reach consensus on the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo, where the majority ethnic Albanians are pushing for a U.N. vote on independence.
Russia rejected a French plan to delay a U.N. Security Council vote in exchange for recognition that Kosovo would eventually have to be independent.
The United States supports a proposal by U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari which offers Kosovo independence under international supervision, but Russia has threatened to veto any vote.
"This needs to happen. It's now time in our judgment to move the Ahtisaari plan," Bush said at a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
Kosovo Albanian leaders, under growing public pressure to declare independence from Serbia, warned they would take their "own path" if the U.N. Security Council did not vote soon.
Bush said there needed to be a deadline for action after a series of delays by people seeking more time to work on a U.N. Security Council resolution.
"And our view is that time is up," Bush said.
He said he had a long discussion on the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and told him: "It's time to bring this issue to a head." The two held a bilateral meeting during the G8 Summit.
Bush said he also discussed the issue with Prodi and agreed with the Italian prime minister that there was a need to make sure the Serbs saw a way forward, such as with potential European Union membership.
Bush said he did not have a say in that, "But I can talk to the Serbs about economic development, and can talk about a better relationship with the United States, and therefore we will."
The European Union says it will resume talks with Serbia on closer ties next week after Belgrade boosted cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The EU had suspended talks in May 2006.
Bush on Sunday will become the first sitting U.S. president to visit Albania, where there is deep interest in resolving the issue of Kosovo statehood.
