Europe

G-8 leaders meet without ailing Bush

(AP)
Updated: 2007-06-08 18:28

Sarkozy has proposed imposing a six-month wait on the resolution, during which Belgrade and the Kosovo Albanians would hold further talks. If they reach no agreement, the U.N. plan would then take effect.

Officials "worked through part of the night on the Kosovo issue. At the moment, we have not achieved the necessary progress, and I remind you that in my proposal, the key question that I posed was recognizing the need for Kosovo to achieve independence within a certain timeframe," Sarkozy said Friday.

"We are going to discuss the issue this morning," he said, though Kosovo was not on the official agenda.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia insisted there should be "no hurry" to resolve the Kosovo issue.

In Pristina, Kosovo's prime minister urged the West not to betray Kosovo.

"I want to say this to the international community: We have trusted you to bring clarity to Kosovo. We have committed to the U.N. path and we have been very patient," Ceku told The Associated Press on Friday. "I urge you; do not betray this trust."

Kosovo also was a focus of the last G-8 summit hosted by Germany, in June 1999, in the weeks after NATO halted its 78-day bombing of what was then Yugoslavia in an effort to drive Serbian forces from the predominantly ethnic Albanian province.