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Serbia Lobbies Against Kosovo Secession

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The Associated Press

Published: February 15, 2008

UNITED NATIONS - Serbia's foreign minister on Thursday urged the U.N. Security Council to oppose Kosovo's expected declaration of independence and called on the secretary-general to order that any proclamation be declared null and void.

In his address to a closed council meeting, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic warned that independence for Kosovo would set a precedent that will echo around the globe, leading to "an uncontrolled cascade of secession."

Jeremic said Serbia does not think that negotiations over the future status of the Serb province are exhausted, as the United States and many European nations maintain.

"We shall never recognize Kosovo's independence," he said in the address released by Serbia's U.N. Mission. "Not now. Not in a year. Not in a decade. Never. For Kosovo and Metohija shall remain a part of Serbia forever."

The Security Council remains deeply divided on the future of Kosovo with Russia backing its close ally Serbia and calling for more negotiations while Britain, France and other European Union members are supporting the Kosovo Albanians.
Kosovo has been under U.N. and NATO administration since a NATO-led air war halted former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership is expected to declare independence unilaterally in the coming days.

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