Russia demands Security Council meeting over Kosovo independence

Russia called U.N. Security Council consultations on Sunday over Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia, in an apparently doomed bid to have the council block the move. In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry urged the United Nations to annul Kosovo's declaration of independence and said it could cause an escalation in ethnic violence in the region.

But the Security Council is divided over what to do. The meeting of the 15-nation council was now due to start at 3 p.m. EST/2000 GMT after it was postponed for two hours because of a shortage of interpreters, U.N. officials said. Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters in New York his country and Serbia had also requested that after Sunday's closed session a second, open council meeting should be held on Monday with Serbian President Boris Tadic present.

Earlier on Sunday, the speaker of the Kosovo parliament announced that the majority ethnic Albanian region was now "an independent, sovereign and democratic state," after deputies voted to adopt a declaration of independence.

"We expect the U.N. mission and NATO-led forces in Kosovo to take immediate action to carry out their mandate ... including the annulling of the decisions of Pristina's self-governing organs and the taking of tough administrative measures against them," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"The decisions by the Kosovo leadership create the risk of an escalation of tension and inter-ethnic violence in the province and of new conflict in the Balkans," it said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was to address to Security Council on Sunday, diplomats said. Ban's office has kept silent on the issue of Kosovo's independence, leaving it in the hands of the council. Churkin said a nine-year-old Security Council resolution and other documents required the U.N. mission in Kosovo, which has administered the region since 1999, to declare any declaration of independence null and void. But Western countries dispute that reading and the council is hopelessly deadlocked on the issue, a fact that prevented action at its last consultations on Kosovo last week.

"We say there is nothing in the resolution that precludes independence," one Western diplomat said. In the run-up to Kosovo's final break with Serbia, Russia said the council should demand more talks between the ethnic Albanians and Belgrade. But Western states said previous talks had led nowhere and independence was now inevitable.

The United States and many European Union countries are expected to recognize the new state. Churkin said Russia would also ask the United Nations about the situation on the ground in Kosovo.

"Our concern is for the safety of the Serb and other ethnic minorities in Kosovo and we'll be inquiring about the activities and the line of action of international presences there," he said. "Certainly again we'll strongly warn against any attempts at repressive measures should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with this unilateral proclamation of independence."