Shkup, Zagreb - 30 August 2007 – (Kosov@News) – The UN plan outlining Kosovo's path to independence remains as the basis for talks on the future of Serbia's breakaway province, German and Macedonian defence ministers said Thursday in Shkup.

"We agreed that Martti Ahtisaari's plan is a good basis," German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said in the Macedonian capital.

During a visit to the Balkans, German Defense Minister Jung underlined his support for the supervised independence of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo as well as Croatia's desire for EU and NATO membership.

Meeting with his Croatian counterpart, Berislav Roncevic, in Zagreb on Wednesday, German Defense Minster Franz Josef Jung said both Germany and Croatia were in agreement over the future of Kosovo.

"We have agreed on the issue of Kosovo and its status," Jung told journalists. "We support [UN special envoy Martti] Ahtisaari's plan."

Jung reiterated that the United Nations was the basis for a solution to solving Kosovo's problems and urged Belgrade to make moves towards it.

On the eve of Jung's departure, the outgoing German commander in Kosovo, Lieutenant-General Roland Kather, warned of "increased nervousness" in the province and called for a swift decision on Kosovo's status.

"From my responsibility as KFOR commander, we need the decision on the final status of Kosovo as soon as possible," Kather told a news conference. "We need it because everybody is waiting. We need it to come up with economic development, and by that, at the same time to provide for security."

On Friday, Jung visits Kosovo where he meets with President Fatmir Sejdiu. There, he is also to attend the formal handing over from German to French command of the approximately 16,000-strong NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeeping contingent.