(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-29 14:53

BADEN - Last-gasp talks on the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo collapsed Wednesday, fuelling fears of violence as ethnic Albanian Kosovan leaders promised to declare speedy independence.

Hashim Thaci (L), tipped to become Kosovo's prime minister, and Kosovo's President Fatmir Sedjiu give a press conference after the last round of talks in Baden. [Agencies]

"Regrettably, there has been no agreement with Serbia. Independence is the beginning and the end," Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said at the end of tense three-day negotiations in the Austrian spa resort of Baden.

"We cannot say the exact time and date" when independence will be declared, but "it will happen very quickly," said the Kosovo Albanian leader.

Serbian President Boris Tadic warned Belgrade would move to quash any unilateral independence proclamation, and Russia said the situation was "very alarming".

Berlin announced it would be sending an extra 500 German troops to Kosovo, bringing their contingent in the NATO-led force to 2,800.

In Brussels, General John Craddock, NATO's supreme commander in Europe, said the alliance's 16,000-strong Kosovo peacekeeping force had plans to tackle any violence.

Meanwhile, the collapse puts the pressure on the UN Security Council which has called for a report on Kosovo's future by December 10.

"We are going to annul all these decisions that would bring Kosovo to independence. We are going to use all legal and diplomatic measures to fight any such decision," Tadic declared.

"Serbia will not accept the independence of Kosovo," he said, adding: "We do not want any violence."

In Moscow, Russian media quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying: "We cannot accept the incantation that this is a unique case, that independence is unavoidable.

"The situation is very alarming. It is only now that many of those who supported calls for a speedy proclamation of Kosovo's independence are starting to understand the possible consequences."

Mediated by envoys from the European Union, Russia and United States, the talks were seen as a last-ditch attempt to settle the issue ahead of the expected unilateral declaration of Kosovan independence.

The three must send a report on Kosovo to the UN Security Council by December 10. A recommendation by one UN envoy for internationally administered independence has already divided the international powers.

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