Russia blocks G8 moves on Kosovo independence

By Crispian Balmer

HEILIGENDAMM, Germany (Reuters) - Russia blocked Kosovo's bid for independence from Serbia on Friday at a G8 summit on the Baltic coast, in a public setback for Western leaders who support it and want action this month.

President Vladimir Putin refused to back down from his insistence that there can be no resolution of Kosovo's status without the agreement of Serbia, and he warned that undermining state sovereignty was a dangerous step.

"People are trying to convince us this problem can be resolved without getting agreements from ... Serbia. We believe this is wrong and does not correspond to moral or legal norms," he told a news conference at the end of the summit.

Serb forces killed 10,000 Kosovo Albanians and drove out nearly a million in a 1998-99 anti-insurgency war which was halted by three months of NATO bombing of Serb targets. The Albanians vow they will never return to Serb sovereignty.

But Putin rejected the West's case that Kosovo was a unique case and warned that Moscow would take it as a precedent.

"No one can name for us a single difference", he said, between Kosovo and separatist conflicts such as in Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan. So the ruling should be universal.

"If we come to the conclusion that the principle of a nation's right to self-determination is more important than territorial integrity then we will have to stick to that principle all over the world," the Russian leader said.

FRUSTRATION MOUNTS

The major power deadlock jangled nerves in Kosovo, where a United States call for patience was quickly followed by an appeal from Prime Minister Agim Ceku to "adopt a resolution as soon as possible or to let us take our own path".

"We can't wait any more. Every day of delay means an increase in frustration," said Ceku, who has warned that Kosovo would declare independence unilaterally if thwarted by Russia.

A diplomat said envoys of the five Western powers would meet next week to discuss the impasse, as Kosovo Liberation Army veterans and student activists called for protests against the "political games being played with the Kosovo people".

The Russian stance rebuffed a mediating bid by France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, at his first G8 summit. He had proposed delaying a U.N. resolution on Kosovo for six months if Moscow would acknowledge "the inevitability" of independence.

"There was no progress on Kosovo for a simple reason," Sarkozy said. "We cannot have a delay...unless all the actors, notably the Russians, consider that the independence of Kosovo is an inevitable outcome."

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said there was "no point in waiting for the sake of it". But the G8 deadlock took the dispute right back to square one, making it plainer than ever that Putin would cast Russia's veto if the West pushed its resolution to Security Council vote.

Merkel, Sarkozy, and President George W. Bush, along with Britain, Italy and Canada, all support independence for the Albanian-majority territory, which has now been under U.N. control for eight years, and they wanted a vote this month.