Belgrade, 28 August 2007 - (Kosov@News) In an article in Serbian Daily "Vecernje Novosti", Serbian Radical Tomislav Nikolic criticizes the top Serb leaders for not attending the status negotiations.

Boris Tadic and Vojislav Kostunica should have gone to Vienna, opines the Serb Radical Party Deputy President Tomislav Nikolic: “both Tadic and Kostunica don’t have a single more important task to perform here, including their family ones, than to attend these negotiations. Thereby they have only demonstrated that they are not serious and how much they really care about Kosovo.”

Nikolic says that no one invited the Radicals to join the negotiating team, “as they obviously did not wish to share responsibility with us. Even the Kosovo Albanians have put together a team with two opposition representatives on board.” Nikolic has confirmed that he would take part in the negotiating team as one of its co-presidents, “but in a way that would clearly show that I respect both the SRS strength and the will of its voters. My only condition would be that we go to Vienna as one team and let everyone know that there will be no independence for Kosovo.” According to the SRS leader, optimum solution to the status of Kosovo is full autonomy, which would go beyond anything that can be found in the world, but within Serbia and with the return of Serbian Army and Police to Kosovo.