Kosovo focus of EU meeting

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Efforts to defuse tensions over Kosovo as the province edges toward declaring independence from Serbia will be a top priority when European Union foreign ministers meet Monday.

Possible new U.N. sanctions against Iran and peace efforts in the Middle East will also feature at the talks to prepare for a summit of EU leaders later in the week.

The 27 EU ministers will meet behind closed doors with the EU's envoy to the Kosovo talks, Wolfgang Ischinger, to discuss how to prevent violence in the breakaway province if Kosovo Albanians declare independence.

The EU is keen to prevent any flare-ups as tensions build in the Balkans over Kosovo's status after months of internationally mediated talks on a compromise solution for its future collapsed two weeks ago.

On Sunday, Russia's foreign minister accused the West of encouraging Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority to unilaterally declare independence.

Such a move would rekindle hostilities in the province and erode global stability, Sergey Lavrov said in an interview.

Sergey Lavrov warned that a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo's Albanians would be "fraught with exacerbation of inter-ethnic controversy in the region and resumption of violence."

Lavrov's statement in an interview with the Cyprus News Agency which was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's Web site underlined a deep rift between Russia and the West in the standoff over Kosovo. E-mail to a friend

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