BBC World Service
Sunday, 21 January, 2001, 22:25 GMT

UN's Bildt urges
permanent Kosovo
settlement

The United Nations special envoy to the
Balkans, Carl Bildt, has called for a new and
more permanent peace settlement in Kosovo.

He said that unless the temporary UN
administration in the province was replaced
with more lasting political structures, there
could be no real stability in the Balkans.

Mr Bildt was speaking after a tour of the
province and other parts of Yugoslavia, to
meet local leaders and the new UN head of
mission Hans Haekkerup in Kosovo.

He said his talks led him to warn that, with the
Yugoslav authorities focussing on issues other
than Kosovo, a deal between them and the
ethnic Albanian leaders in the province was
probably a long way off. Mr Bildt also said the
NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo could do
more to stop the flow of arms and men to the
ethnic Albanian rebels and Yugoslav forces in
southern Serbia.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service