NATO chief warns Putin over Kosovo delay

By Guy Faulconbridge and Conor Sweeney

MOSCOW (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that blocking independence for Kosovo could allow the Serbian province to slide into instability.

De Hoop Scheffer said he had urged Putin at a meeting in the Kremlin to allow a United Nations Security Council vote on the province's future and that he was concerned over delays.

"NATO allies are responsible for 16,000 men and women in uniform who are creating and guaranteeing the climate of security and stability in Kosovo," de Hoop Scheffer told Reuters in an interview after meeting Putin.

"And I think that climate is not well served when it will take longer and longer before the security council can come to any final conclusions," he said.

The fate of Kosovo is emerging as the latest sticking point in relations between Moscow and Western powers, which are pushing to give Kosovo's 2 million Albanians independence.

Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, is blocking the adoption of a council resolution that would set the NATO-patrolled territory on the path to statehood.

Kosovo, seen by Serbia as a cradle of its culture, has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces to halt the slaughter and expulsion of civilians in a two-year war with separatist Albanian guerrillas.

Putin is coming under pressure from world leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush to agree to Kosovo's independence.

He is due to meet Bush on July 1-2 in Maine, an encounter some diplomats see as the last chance for a deal on Kosovo.

STABILITY?

Russia, which views Serbia as an ally linked by a common Slavic culture, opposed NATO's bombing of Serbia.

Russian officials say the United States and European Union are stirring up future strife in the Balkans by carving up Serbia. Belgrade has cautioned that independence for Kosovo would destabilize the Balkans.

Russia has rejected a draft U.N. resolution, which called for 120 more days of talks between Serbia and leaders of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.

If those talks triggered by the resolution failed, a plan drawn up by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari to give Kosovo independence under the European Union supervision could then take effect, according to the draft.

"What is important and necessary now is that the (U.N.) security council takes its responsibility and that sooner rather than later -- let me phrase it like this -- that we would have resolution," de Hoop Scheffer said.

"And as far as the allies are concerned, as you know, that the resolution should follow the principles and proposals by Martti Ahtisaari"