"Formula found" for Sarajevo conference

There shall be no state symbols but personal names only. The final positive reply by both Belgrade and Pristina yesterday managed to secure Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini after talks with officials of Serbia and Kosovo.

The model that shall be used is known as GIMNIK.

The reached agreement is actually finalization of diplomatic action by the Spanish and Turkish foreign ministers who agreed the GIMNIK model at the meeting with their Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic last week. In the meantime the agreement has been approved by Brussels, too, Blic writtes.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini confirmed that Kosovo Albanian officials agreed to travel to Sarajevo and participate in the gathering organized in this format, Serbian media reports.

It entails representation without "state names and symbols", and renders the meeting an informal gathering.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who also talked with Frattini, said that Serbia was being constructive regarding the organization of the Sarajevo conference, adding that he believed that a solution would be found that would enable everyone to participate.

"I believe that Pristina will also show a level of readiness to approach this problem in a sensible manner," Jeremic said.

He added, however, that there were "red lines that cannot be crossed with any amount of good will."

"These are the lines of international law and Resolution 1244. Kosovo cannot be represented anywhere in a way that goes against Resolution 1244, which calls for the role that UNMIK has played from 1999 to now," Jeremic said.

He said that Serbia's stance is that "if there is no UNMIK, there is no Kosovo".

"I believe that when working together with a constructive approach we will find a solution that will enable all of is to appear in Sarajevo together," Jeremic concluded.