[tgambill]

Exactly.......Now, it seems the Bush administration has worked something out with Russia and China. Both said that they would not stand in the way of the independence.

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Russia and China pledge not to block new Kosovo

Russia and China have told the US that they will not block the independence of Kosovo, the breakaway Serbian province, according to western diplomats.

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, discussed the issue with Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, in Washington last week and was told Moscow would not stand in the way of independence, the officials said. Russia and China would probably abstain in a proposed UN resolution that would grant independence.

Kosovo, with its ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority, has been a ward of the UN since Nato forces bombed Serbia to halt ethnic cleansing in 1999 and then took control of the province. But the debate has entered a new phase with the start of UN-brokered negotiations to decide Kosovo's final status."

The US and UK are pushing strongly for Serbia to accept that Kosovo will become independent, while Russia, which had previously worried that the province would set a precedent for its own republic of Chechnya, has scaled down its objections.

The officials, who asked not to be named, said the Bush administration had persuaded Moscow and Beijing that independence for the Serbian province was "unique" and would not set a precedent for Chechnya, or for the Chinese-claimed territories of Taiwan and Tibet.

However, analysts said some in Moscow wanted a better deal with Washington that might leave open the possibility of a Kosovo-type solution for other regions, including Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, which is backed by Russia.

Last week Jack Straw, UK foreign secretary, said Kosovo's independence was "almost inevitable". But Philippe Douste-Blazy, his French counterpart, stuck closer to the European Union's official line by saying that the "negotiations should not be prejudged".

[Cicero]

Very disheartening. I wonder what Bush promised Russia to get them to agree to betray their Little Brother Serbs.

[LjubivojeRadosavljevic]

[Russia and China pledge not to block new Kosovo...Russia and China have told the US that they will not block the independence of Kosovo...]

Okay, then let's fight fire with fire and push for the independence of Taiwan and Chechnya and see how China and Russia they like that.

LIBO

[A. Pole]

The US and UK are pushing strongly for Serbia to accept that Kosovo will become independent, while Russia, which had previously worried that the province would set a precedent for its own republic of Chechnya, has scaled down its objections.

The officials, who asked not to be named, said the Bush administration had persuaded Moscow and Beijing that independence for the Serbian province was "unique" and would not set a precedent for Chechnya

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