Prishtina, 28 October 2005 - Kosovo's President Ibrahim Rugova is convening the second meeting of the Kosovo Status Negotiation Team today. Rugova instructed team members to cancel any activities that they had planned for today. As a result, the Prime Minister had to cancel his planned trip to Hungary.

Participation of the Kosovo Democratic Party leader, Mr. Hashim Thaci is still in question, however, the meetin will go on with or without his presence.

On other related news, SRSG Soren Jessen-Petersen called on Negotiation Group to prepare for the talks upon his arrival from New York on Wednesday. His guidance to the team was to "leave words aside" and begin to prepare for the talks.

The SRSG called the UN SC meeting that opened the path for status talks a historical moment for Kosovo. “Kosovars need to prove to UN that they can lead Kosovo after the status; If Kosovo manages to create a democratic, multiethnic and tolerant society, then Kosovo will be very close to achieving its goals  and ambitions”, Jessen-Petersen said according to the Kosovo Daily "Koha Ditore".

 In addition, representatives of five diplomatic offices in Pristina; US, Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy have told "Koha Ditore" that they welcome the decision of the UN SC for Kosovo and say that Pristina needs to continue preparations for the status talks.

According to them, "at this time Pristina needs preparations in the technical aspect and needs to identify specific issues related to the status".