United Nations special envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Tuesday began talks with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, on final status of the Serbian province, which has been under UN control since 1999. Ahtisaari held talks with president Ibrahim Rugova and members of his negotiating team, as well as prime ministër Bajram Kosumi, on the first leg of a tour that will take in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, the Albanian capital, Tirana, the Montenegran capital, Podgorica, and Macedonia's capital, Skopje. "The negotiating process has begun," Rugova told journalists after the meeting. He said that ethnic Albanians handed Ahtisaari a "document which contains a project on Kosovo's independence."He added that the document contained "guidelines for the integration of Kosovo into the European Union and NATO, as well as guarantees for the safety of minorities". Ahtisaari - made no statement, but was expected to comment on the result of the talks on Wednesday, after he meets with the delegation of Kosovan Serbs. The "Washington Post" reported on that they might be only a step away from that goal. Quoting political analysts in the US capital, the paper said that American and European officials have been exerting pressure on Belgrade to grant Kosovo "conditional independence," with some sort of international monitoring.

G.Sot