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BELGRADE, Serbia, June 8 — Seven years after Kosovo was placed under United Nations control, it appears increasingly likely that the province will be allowed to break away from Serbia formally and become an independent nation. Members of the United Nations Security Council appear to be leaning toward permitting Kosovo to go its own way. The Council is expected to vote on Kosovo's fate by the end of the year, unless the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians, who have been negotiating unsuccessfully for months, reach a resolution. But some of the world's most powerful countries are fearful the move will encourage...

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Granting independence to Serbia's southern province of Kosovo against the will of Serbia would destabilize the Balkans, Serbia-Montenegro Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic warned on Tuesday. The United Nations is mediating talks on Kosovo's future status, which Western diplomats say are likely to conclude with a form of independence by the end of the year. Serbia is adamantly opposed to such an outcome. "I am very afraid of the possible imposed solution against the will of Belgrade of turning Kosovo into a state," Draskovic told a news conference. "The whole region, I think, would inevitably face turbulence." The...

After seven years of frustrated attempts, the separatist regime in Montenegro celebrated victory Sunday night, as it managed to drum up the 55.5 percent of the votes necessary to win the independence referendum. What would be a landslide in any Western election was actually the narrowest of margins in Montenegro, as the acceptable threshold set by the Brussels bureaucrats was 55 percent. It took weeks of pro-independence propaganda in government-monopolized media, multi-million-euro public works timed for the referendum, shady political deals with ethnic minorities, and voter shenanigans to secure that .5 percent margin between victory and defeat. And though the...

Serbia accepts Montenegro result Serbia President Boris Tadic Boris Tadic said Serbia would always be a friend of Montenegro Serbian President Boris Tadic has recognised the results of Montenegro's vote for independence, in the first official response from Serbia. "I accept the preliminary results reached by the referendum commission," Mr Tadic told a news conference. Official results of Sunday's referendum in Montenegro put the pro-independence votes at 55.5% - just half a percentage point above the threshold for victory. But a demand by pro-Serbian unionist parties for a recount was rejected. "As you know, I was in favour of maintaining...

Montenegro has voted for independence from its union with Serbia, according to unofficial projections. If confirmed, the vote would erase the last vestige of the former Yugoslavia. Initial indications are that 56.3% of voters elected to secede from Serbia. The pro-independence bloc needs to win 55% of the vote to succeed. The question of independence has deeply divided Montenegro, with its opponents arguing that it will damage economic, family and political ties with Serbia.