(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-15 09:36

UNITED NATIONS - Serbia urged the UN Security Council Thursday to reject a unilateral declaration of independence of its breakaway province of Kosovo.

At the request of Serbia and Russia, the 15 council members, along with dozens of other delegates permitted, held a meeting on Thursday afternoon to discuss the situation in Kosovo. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic also attended the meeting.

Speaking to reporters after the session, Jeremic said he had told the council that there was "an imminent threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty" of Serbia.

"We asked the Security Council to join us in defense of the UN Charter, of Security Council resolution 1244, of all the basic principles of international law and ... to make null and void any potential, illegal declaration of independence" on behalf of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Jeremic said.

He said the meeting gave him "great comfort" because a majority of the council members were supportive of continued talks between Belgrade and Pristina.

"They believe that it is only through peaceful negotiation that we can find solutions to the difficult problems," Jeremic said.

"Serbia is prepared to continue its peaceful engagement of the process of finding a compromise solution to future status of our sovereign province of Kosovo," he said.

"We believe it is never too late to call the negotiations off, to call off the efforts to find a peaceful solution," he added.

The foreign minister warned that Serbia will not hesitate from using "all political, all diplomatic, and all economic measures" to reverse any  seceding moves from the ethnic Albanians.

But "Serbia is not going to use force, and this is the commitment that Serbia has had," he added.