Serb President, Kosovo Albanians to Talk

European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, right, shakes hands with Serbia's President Boris Tadic, left, upon his arrival at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday July 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Thierry Charlier) (Thierry Charlier - AP)

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Serbian President Boris Tadic announced Wednesday he will meet with ethnic Albanian leaders of the breakaway Kosovo province, the first top level face-to-face talks between the former warring sides.

The U.N.-sponsored gathering, tentatively set for Monday in Vienna, Austria, will seek an agreement on the future status of the province. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority insists on full independence, but the Serb minority and Belgrade government want to retain some control.

Kosovo _ seen as Serbia's historic heartland _ has been run by the United Nations and patrolled by international peacekeepers since a 1999 NATO aerial bombardment halted a crackdown by Serb forces on separatist ethnic Albanian rebels.

U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, was named by the world body to mediate talks between the two sides. So far there have been a number of meetings dealing with technical issue, but Monday's conference would be the first involving top political leaders from both sides.

"There were very small technical problems," Tadic told journalists during a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels. "I've heard that (Ahtisaari) has solved that problem. For that reason I'm ready to go there."

A Serbian official said Tadic had wanted an agenda drawn up before talks and minutes be kept and distributed to both sides.

Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu will lead a delegation "to make the case for independence, not to negotiate it, and to see that it happens by the end of the year," Sejdiu's adviser, Muhamet Hamiti, said in the province's capital, Pristina.

In Belgrade, officials said Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica had not yet decided whether to attend the talks. "The prime minister will decide after consultations (with Tadic)," spokesman Srdjan Djurich said.

Serbia is still reeling from the secession of its sister state of Montenegro, which declared independence after a referendum in May. Serbia had opposed the breakup.

Serbia and Montenegro were the only former Yugoslav republics that stayed together after the violent disintegration of the Balkan federation in the 1990s. Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia split from the Serb-led federation, triggering a series of bloody ethnic wars. Macedonia also seceded but without fighting there.