The Serbian authorities and Kosovo ethnic Albanian majority must make a compromise in order to reach a decision on Kosovo's future status, a senior UN official said in Kosovo's capital Pristina on Wednesday.

Deputy UN envoy for Kosovo status talks, Albert Rohan, said that the goal of his meetings with Serbian and Albanian negotiating teams was to get a sense of problems that could be reflected on the process of status talks, the official Tanjug news agency reported.

Rohan told a news conference in Pristina that Kosovo Serbs, if they wanted be part of the future in their territories, had to take an active part in all the processes.

Kosovo, a Serbian province, has been placed under UN administration since mid-1999. Its future status is a bitter subject between Belgrade and Kosovo's Albanian majority, who are demanding independence.

The process of defining Kosovo's future status has been launched by the UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari late last month, while direct talks between Kosovo's Albanian majority and Serbian authorities are expected to be held early next year.

Rohan said that both sides had to desist somewhat from their positions, so that an acceptable solution may be found both for Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

Nothing concrete can be offered to either side, he said, adding that the UN envoy's job is just to push forward the process of two opposed sides that somehow have to be brought into line.

Source: Xinhua