Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Saturday that Serbia would never agree to give up its sovereignty over the breakaway Kosovo province in exchange for the membership in the European Union.

"The government is united and decisive in its stance that Serbia will never accept extortion over Kosovo for European integration," Kostunica said in an interview with the Serbian national news agency Tanjug.

Serbia is ready to start fresh negotiations in order to find a negotiated solution for Kosovo, said Kostunica, expressing his belief that the UN Security Council will never adopt a resolution which would deprive a UN member-state of some 15 percent of its territory.

Legally still part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by a UN mission since NATO bombing halted Serbia's crackdown on the pro- independent Albanian majority in Kosovo in 1999.

UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari has proposed internationally supervised independence for Kosovo, a move backed by the United States, most EU countries and Kosovo Albanian leaders but rejected by Serbia and its traditional ally Russia.

The UN Security Council is due to debate a resolution based on Ahtisaari's proposal later this month, but Russia has threatened to block any resolution unacceptable to Serbia.

The European Union froze pre-membership talks with Belgrade a year ago over Serbia's failure to hand over war crimes suspects, notably former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Serbia would take all "necessary measures to finalize" cooperation with the UN tribunal in order to continue integration talks with the EU, said Kostunica, who was re-elected prime minister to the post on Tuesday after more than three-months of bickering between Serbian pro-European parties.

"Of course, it is our goal to fulfill our obligations towards the Tribunal since it is in the interest of our country" Kostunica said.

Source: Xinhua