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Serbia proposes Hong Kong model for Kosovo

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Serbia will push for a solution to the Kosovo problem following the example of Hong Kong, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in an interview with the Tanjug news agency on Tuesday.
BELGRADE, November 6 (RIA Novosti) - Serbia will push for a solution to the Kosovo problem following the example of Hong Kong, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in an interview with the Tanjug news agency on Tuesday.

He said that at the next round of negotiations in Brussels, set for November 20, the Serb delegation will present a final plan for the status of Serbia's breakaway province, based on a comparative analysis between Belgrade's idea of "broad autonomy" for Kosovo, and the status of Hong Kong in China following the United Kingdom's handover of the region in 1997.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, with its own laws, immigration and customs policy, and monetary system.

The prime minister said that if Belgrade's proposals are accepted, an agreement on the status of Kosovo "would be in full accordance with the UN Charter and the constitution of Serbia."

At the latest round of negotiations between Serb and Kosovo Albanian leaders in Vienna on Monday, the Pristina delegation rejected Belgrade's plan as unacceptable.

The U.S. and some EU states are pushing for Kosovar independence, while Russia has strongly opposed sovereignty for the province, saying it would set a dangerous precedent, including for post-Soviet states.

Serbian officials and representatives of Kosovo, a UN protectorate since NATO's 1999 bombing campaign that ended a conflict between Serbian troops and Albanian separatists, have failed so far to reach a compromise on Kosovo's status.

December 10 has been set as the deadline for the Contact group negotiating a solution on the predominantly Albanian province's status - Russia, the United States, and the four largest European Union members - to submit a report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Belgrade and Russia have spoken out against strict timeframes in the long-running dispute, but Kosovo Albanian leaders have said they will declare independence unilaterally if no deal is reached by the December 10 deadline.

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