Envoy presents U.N. plan for Kosovo to Serbia

BELGRADE (Reuters) - United Nations special envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Friday handed to Serb authorities his plan for the future of Kosovo that will set the breakaway province on a path to independence.

Ahtisaari and Serb President Boris Tadic posed for photographers in silence sitting across from each other in a lounge of the presidency building, then retiring for a meeting expected to take less than an hour.

Ahtisaari will also present his plan in Kosovo's capital Pristina, where Albanian leaders know they are to be offered something short of independence at first, coupled with more years of international supervision by a European Union mission.

United Nations armored personnel carriers moved around Pristina early in the morning, preparing to seal off the center for the envoy's visit.

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BRUSSELS, Feb 2 (Reuters) - A U.N. plan for the future of Kosovo will never be accepted by the Serb minority or Serbia, the head of the Serb Orthodox Church in Kosovo said on Friday.

Bishop Artemije told Reuters in Brussels an imposed solution for the province would destabilise the Balkan region and boost calls for independence in other parts of Europe.

"The proposal is unacceptable to us because it presupposes the separation of Kosovo from Serbia and as such will never be accepted either by the Kosovo Serbs nor the Serbian state," the spiritual leader of Kosovo's Serb minority said.

"Only a solution found through talks and compromise can be a lasting solution," Artemije, speaking through an interpreter, said in an interview after meeting EU Special Representative to Kosovo Stefan Lehne.

The bishop spoke as U.N. special envoy Martti Ahtisaari handed over his plan to set Kosovo on a path to independence to Serb authorities. He would travel to Kosovo's capital, Pristina, later on Friday.
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