EU Still Divided As Crisis Looms Over Kosovo Independence

European governments struggled to find agreement yesterday on how to respond to the looming crisis over Kosovo independence on the day that almost two years of negotiations between Kosovo Albanian leaders and the Serbian government were declared dead.

As thousands of ethnic Albanians rallied in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, to demand prompt support for Kosovo statehood, Wolfgang Ischinger, the German diplomat who chaired futile negotiations between the two sides over the past four months, briefed EU foreign ministers in Brussels and sought to marshal a consensus behind European recognition of Kosovo over the next couple of months.

What was intended as a brief discussion over lunch ran on for several hours and highlighted the divisions within the EU, which is supposed to take over the running of Kosovo early next year and steer the province to statehood.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, said Cyprus was resisting a European conclusion that there was no point in further negotiations and supported Serbian and Russian insistence that talks should continue to try to reach an agreement that has eluded the sides for the past two years. A summit of EU leaders on Friday is now likely to agree only a "bland" statement on Kosovo, according to one senior diplomat, leaving the tough decisions until the new year.

Diplomats said the EU was split three ways between those who backed an independent Kosovo, those who opposed it, and those who advocated a tougher EU policy against Serbia. "Kosovo and the people of Kosovo urgently need clarity on their future. The institutions of Kosovo will deliver that clarity very soon," said Skender Hyseni, a Kosovo spokesman, indicating that Kosovo would soon formally break away from Serbia by issuing a unilateral declaration of independence.

Thousands of students marched in Pristina to demand quick independence, waving the flags of their strongest backers, the US, and calling on Europe to "show unity".

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, last night underlined to EU ministers Moscow's opposition to Kosovo independence without an agreement with Serbia, which lost control of Kosovo to Nato in 1999 but still refuses to accede to Kosovo secession.