Kosovo Talks

Frank Wisner from the United States, Russian Alexandar Botsan-Kharchenko and German Wolfgang Ischinger for the EU were given the task to steer Belgrade and Pristina to resolve the issue of the province's undetermined status.

The envoys met with Serbian President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica to discuss the form in which the planned 120 days of negotiations would unfold.

Ischinger said that the talks on Friday were a good first step, and that the envoys were in Belgrade to discuss their tasks and goals in the coming negotiation process.

"We had the opportunity to explain in detail the purpose, the scope and the mandate of our mission," Ischinger said. "This is the beginning of a process that will lead us into December."

Likely the final chance for a solution

But the German diplomat also said the troika would likely be the final chance to resolve the Kosovo issue. The mediators "are offering Belgrade and Pristina another opportunity, maybe the last opportunity, to work out a negotiated solution," he told the BBC.

"If there's success, it will be their success. If there's failure, it will be their failure," he added.

The troika is scheduled to report its findings to the United Nations by Dec. 10. After that, barring an unexpected compromise, a solution would be imposed along the roadmap laid out by the UN mediator in the previous, failed talks, Martti Ahtisaari. Russia, however, has pushed for the talks to remain open-ended.

After some 13 months of negotiations, Ahtisaari envisaged supervised independence for Kosovo, enraging Serbia, which angrily rejected his document as a legal violation aimed at dismembering a recognized country.

Serbia has however yet not produced a viable counterproposal but said Friday in a statement that the newest talks would "pave the way for reaching a compromise solution."

'No stone unturned'

Troika diplomats said they were determined to find a compromise both Kosovar and Serbian leaders would accept.

"We will leave no stone unturned in trying to find a solution to the Kosovo status question and all other related problems," Wisner told Belgrade reporters.

Botsan-Kharchenko reiterated Russia's ongoing stance that it supports a solution based on a compromise between Belgrade and Pristina.

The three envoys are scheduled to meet Kosovo-Albanian leaders in Pristina Saturday, where a similar introductory discussion was expected to take place. Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku stated that the Albanian negotiation team would present its platform for the talks to the international envoys on Saturday.

Thus far, the form and schedule of the talks was apparently not agreed on in advance and the outlook is grim as Belgrade adamantly insists on sovereignty over the hostile Kosovo, while the increasingly impatient majority of Albanians there want nothing less than independence.

"We can discuss for 120 months, or 120 years and again we will come to the same point and that is: we want independence and Serbia is against it," said Veton Surroi, one of Kosovo's Albanian negotiators.

Sovereignty would allow Pristina access to international lending institutions and crack open doors to the recovery of the moribund economy instead of relying on aid.

Russia halted UN plan

Ahtisaari's plan was blocked in the United Nations by Russia, which strongly backed Serbia's position.

Moscow said it would only support a solution accepted by both sides and its diplomats dismissed Ahtisaari's plan as "dead" ahead of the new round of talks.

The EU, which has said it would take over for the UN in Kosovo with a mission that would provide the province with "supervised independence," wants the upcoming talks to be based on the reality that Serbia has not controlled Kosovo over the past eight years, Ischinger said ahead of the Belgrade visit.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO intervention put a stop to a Serbian crackdown on the Kosovo Albanian separatist movement. Some 16,000 NATO-led troops are currently stationed in Kosovo, in charge of security in the region.