BELGRADE (AFP) - Serbia will never accept an independent Kosovo and would consider any such decision a violation of international law, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Saturday. “Any forced solution and grabbing of a part of our territory would be an inconceivable precedent and would be a legal breach of international law,” Kostunica told the Beta news agency. “It is absolutely certain that Serbia will never recognize such a violation,” Kostunica said as he was preparing to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting today devoted to talks on the status of the UN-administered Serbian province. “As a democratic state we have full confidence in the Security Council that it will use its authority to guarantee that international law is respected, first of all the inviolability of the most important principle of preserving sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Kostunica said.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - The United States and new NATO member Romania are very close to reaching an agreement to establish American military bases on the Black Sea, US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said yesterday. Romania has been promoting its airfields and bases as a possible hub for US forces as Washington pulls 70,000 troops out of Central Europe and Asia in the next decade to smaller bases closer to potential hot spots such as the Middle East. “There’s an issue of finalizing the relevant agreement and then signing it. The framework basically allows access to facilities so as to facilitate cooperation between the forces of the United States and Romania,” Hadley told reporters after meeting President Traian Basescu to discuss regional issues. “We look forward to the conclusion of that agreement very soon,” the White House official said.

Romanian President Traian Basescu said yesterday that Syria should be warned by the United Nations Security Council to stop being “a factor of instability” in the Middle East. Romania currently holds the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council. Basescu made the remarks after meeting US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who was on a two-day visit to Bucharest. During his meeting with Hadley, Basescu discussed Syria and the situation in Lebanon, including the February assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A recent report by UN investigator Detlev Mehlis apparently established a clear link between Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the assassination of Hariri. (AP)