EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held talks with Serbian President Boris Tadic in Brussels on Tuesday.

Serbian President Boris Tadic and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton agreed in Brussels Tuesday that Serbia and the EU should continue their dialogue on coordinating stands on Serbia's resolution on Kosovo.

Tadic and Ashton conferred Tuesday evening for almost two hours behind closed doors.

They were endeavoring to coordinate Serbia's and EU stands on Serbia's resolution on Kosovo.

A brief European Commission press release that was handed to the Serbian media by the EU delegation in Serbia, said that Tadic and Ashton had agreed to stay in touch on Sept. 8.

"The meeting provided an opportunity for us to discuss the situation after the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion. Ashton and President Tadic agreed to stay in touch tomorrow," the statement said.

According to unofficial sources, Tadic plans on going back to Belgrade.

Tadic and Ashton discussed efforts to harmonize Serbia and the EU's views on Serbia's proposed resolution on Kosovo at the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels.

The meeting was held two days prior to a debate at the U.N. General Assembly on the proposal and after intense consultations between Serbia and the EU on the document.

Meanwhile, the EU member-states coordinated their stand, including the countries which did not recognize Kosovo's independence. The Union members that have recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo have, along with these "guidelines," made it clear that the content of the document in no way puts in question their stand that Kosovo is an independent state.

The UN General Assembly will debate on September 9 the resolution on Kosovo that Serbia submitted after the International Court of Justice advisory opinion.

Serbia has submitted a resolution for the early September U.N. meeting in New York that calls Kosovo's declaration "unacceptable" and requests more talks on its status.

The EU and the US are urging Serbia not to challenge Kosovo's independence at the U.N. General Assembly, and Tadic has previously said his government is open to a compromise on the resolution.

According to wellinformed diplomatic sources in Brussels, the most influential EU member states that have recognized Kosovo, just like the U.S., essentially still want to present the Serbian authorities led by Tadic with the choice that if Serbia wants to join the EU, it cannot go against the majority within the Union and must stand down.

The debate underscores the tensions that linger over Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence.
Britain, the U.S. and major European Union powers are among 69 countries that have backed Kosovo's move.
But Serbia, supported by Russia and China, maintains that it will never accept an independent Kosovo.

Still, many countries in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly are hesitant to recognise Kosovo, with some fearing it could embolden their own separatist movements.

Russia is closely cooperating with Serbia in the process of the resolution of the Kosovo issue, including the process of the submission of a resolution to the UN General Assembly, but it is the task of Serbia primarily to formulate the text of that document, Beta learns from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Commenting on the Serbian draft resolution, the Ministry said that Russia had always taken a principled position on the Kosovo issue, the basis of which is an imperative of finding a mutually acceptable solution, through talks and rejection of unilateral moves.

They emphasized that was the only way to obtain a sustainable solution to create prerequisites for stable and secure development of the Balkans.

Tadic reiterated earlier Serbia's readiness to cooperate with the EU in seeking a compromise, but also emphasized that Serbia will not accept a document which would be detrimental to its national interests.

Chairman of the Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Dragoljub Micunovic has assessed thathere are two possible solutions - one is that the EU proposes, by way of amendments, a different formulation of the disputable parts of the resolution, which Serbia would accept and the UN GA vote for, and the other that Belgrade drafts a new resolution together with Spain and Greece.

Serbian Progressive Party deputy leader Aleksandar Vucic on Sept. 7 said the fact that two days before the vote on Kosovo at the U.N. General Assembly the text of the resolution remains unknown was a matter of "underestimating and humiliating" Serbian citizens.

"No one in the country knows what is written in that text. We are all involved in something, yet we have no idea what it is and that is just rude and arrogant on the part of the authorities. They are underestimating and humiliating the citizens," Vucic told a news conference.

Liberal Democratic Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic described it as an opportunity for Serbia to make a new partnership deal with the EU, which, however, must not be limited only to the matter of modifying the Serbian resolution on Kosovo.

Jovanovic also said this was a chance for Serbia to make a breakthrough, use the given political opportunity and open a new chapter, through which it would help itself, its citizens and all Serbs in Kosovo.

Chairwoman of the Foreign Ministry's Foreign Policy Committee Sonja Liht said she believed Catherine Ashton and Boris Tadic would reach a compromise on the Kosovo resolution.

"Without a compromise with the EU, it is very difficult to imagine how we will shape our relations with the EU in the future, because we want to become a member, and as a future member we have to make an effort, just like the EU, to find common ground, which is why I am confident that will happen," Liht said.