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	Austrian chancellor seeks face-saving Kosovo deal Wiena, 24.04.2007 By Boris Groendahl and Alexandra Zawadil VIENNA, April 13 (Reuters) - Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is working with Serbia on an acceptable way of implementing a United Nations envoy's plan for Kosovo, which proposes independence for the breakaway province. Gusenbauer told Reuters in an interview the West had to acknowledge that Serb leaders could not endorse envoy Martti Ahtisaari's proposals as they stood, and a formula was needed which did not humiliate Belgrade. "We are working with (Serbian President) Boris Tadic and his people to find a way to implement the essence of the Ahtisaari plan," Gusenbauer said in the interview late on Thursday. Ahtisaari says independence for Kosovo, supervised by the European Union for an open-ended period, is "the only viable option", because Kosovo's 90 percent Albanian majority will never accept a return to rule by Serbia even with autonomy. The implication that Tadic is discussing independence caused a stir in Serbia, where any concession on Kosovo is dynamite. An aide denied Tadic discussed independence with Gusenbauer because it would violate policy. Gusenbauer, a Social Democrat who took office in January as head of a wide coalition government, said Austria had established itself as an honest broker in the region. "It can't be the goal to humiliate Serbia, but there needs to be a deal where both (Serbia and Kosovo) emerge from the situation holding their heads high," he said. The U.N. Security Council is discussing Ahtisaari's plan, in which one of the major problems is how to deal with the northern part of Kosovo inhabited predominantly by Serbs. Gusenbauer said one way out might be to model the area on the semi-autonomous province of Alto Adige in northern Italy, known in Austria as South Tyrol. The region is populated predominantly by German-speaking people with Austria as their guarantor state. Italy and Austria agreed in 1972 that the province could have special legislative rights and fill major administrative posts without interference from Rome, an element missing from Ahtisaari's plan for the Serb areas of Kosovo. "Perhaps the northern part of Kosovo could develop in a similar fashion as South Tyrol has developed in the past in Italy," Gusenbauer said. "There are a number of models." Serbia has so far rejected any deal that would give Kosovo independence, even if Serbia had a guarantor role for the Serb areas or Serbs given more rights in Kosovo. Belgrade itself has used Alto Adige as an example too, but in their model, the entire province of Kosovo would remain part of Serbia just as the province is entirely part of Italy. Gusenbauer said he did not expect Russia to veto the plan in the Security Council but hoped its reluctance to agree quickly meant there was more time to find a solution. He also advised the United States not to rush to recognise Kosovo's independence unilaterally. (Additional reporting by Matt Robinson in Pristina and Douglas Hamilton and Ellie Tzortzi in Belgrade) Attachments for download:       Address : Euro-Brew Ltd., Hlboká 22, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia Tel. : +421 33 53 418 53, Fax : +421 33 53 418 52, E-mail : info@eurobrew.sk

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