Serbia PM Rules Out Serb State in Northern Kosovo

Serbia's Prime Minister Ivica Dacic on Wednesday categorically ruled out the creation of a separate Serb state inside northern Kosovo and pledged instead to implement an historic deal to normalize ties between Belgrade and Pristina.

At a hearing of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Dacic reiterated his government's intention to stand by a deal brokered by the EU on April 19 that has angered many of the 40,000 ethnic Serbs resident in northern Kosovo.

Like Belgrade, they continue to refuse to recognize Kosovo's breakaway from Serbia in 2008.

"Serbia has not recognized the independence" of its former province, Dacic told the committee, "but is aware of the realities on the ground."

Speaking a day after Kosovo Serbs announced a plan to create a regional parliament that would answer to Belgrade rather than Pristina, Dacic said without referring to it specifically that the April deal "does not mean the creation of any Republika Srpska" in Kosovo.

Republika Srpska is the official name of the Serb political entity in Bosnia.

Any move to set up an assembly in northern Kosovo would threaten the deal struck after two years of tough talks to ease border tensions and enable solutions to daily problems such as the mutual recognition of property deeds and university diplomas.

Dacic said Serbia was committed to implementing the deal as a way forward to becoming a member of the European Union.

"There is no room for any (doubt) about this," he said.

Serbia hopes to be given a date to begin membership negotiations at an EU summit next month.