Prishtina/Belgrade, 28 August 2007 - (Kosov@News) - Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said that the partition of Kosovo would be an acceptable solution. "If both parties agree on it, and it is a workable solution, then division is acceptable for me, but only under the umbrella of the UN Security Council," Verhagen told Dutch public Radio 1 Tuesday while on a two-day visit to Belgrade and Pristina.

Verhagen is the first European Union foreign minister who has said that a possible division of Kosovo into a Serb-dominated and an Albanian-dominated part is acceptable. "What I am trying to do is give an extra push to what the troika is trying to do: to get Serbia and Kosovo to come up with workable solutions," Verhagen told Radio 1. "The most important is that there is a solution that is supported by both parties, that is agreed to by the UN Security Council and that is workable," he added.

"Both sides in the Kosovo conflict should move from their initial positions and be honest in finding a solution," said the Dutch foreign minister following a meeting with his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic. The two ministers agreed in Belgrade that the forthcoming talks on resolving Kosovo’s future status were important and that, at the end of the negotiations, a sustainable and mutually satisfactory solution for the Serbian province was expected. Verhagen said that the Netherlands supported a resolution within the framework of international law and via a UN resolution which would be sustainable in the region and would protect the Serbian national minority and cultural heritage.

Following a meeting with the Dutch foreign policy chief, Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu reiterated the firm position of Kosovo Albanians that "independence and territorial integrity of Kosovo were non-negotiable".