( AP ) - A senior U.S. diplomat called for Russia's cooperation in U.N. Security Council efforts to resolve Kosovo's status, but Russia's foreign minister said Monday that any resolution that is unacceptable to Serbia will not pass, Russian news agencies reported.
Sergey Lavrov did not specifically say that Russia would use its Security Council veto power, but his statement was the strongest indication yet that Russia would shoot down a resolution calling for Kosovo's independence from Serbia, a traditional Russian ally.
"Any solution is possible on the basis of agreement by both sides involved. Any other decision cannot make it through the Security Council," Lavrov was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as saying in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
The United States and European members of the Security Council have drafted a resolution that would give Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs four months to reach an agreement on the status of the Serbian province. If there is no agreement, Kosovo would be granted independence under international supervision and eventually full independence.
Russia has expressed concern that if the Security Council granted independence to a province of a sovereign country it would set a dangerous precedent.
"The United States wants to work with Russians in order to find a solution," Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said Sunday after talks with officials in Montenegro, a tiny republic that split from Serbia last year.
He said President Bush has "made very clear that Kosovo's independence is going to be the result" of the process.
Kosovo, while officially a province of Serbia, has been administered by the U.N. and NATO since a 78-day NATO-led air war halted a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
The province's ethnic Albanian majority demands independence, but minority Serbs and Serbia want Belgrade to retain some control.