BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's president and party leaders were to meet Monday to map out their strategy concerning the UN plan for Kosovo, which most Serbs see as granting independence to the contested province.
Hosted by pro-western President Boris Tadic, the meeting brings together hardliners and moderates who seem united in their rejection of the plan presented by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
Tadic denounced the proposal shortly after Ahtisaari revealed it in Belgrade on Friday and later in Kosovo to the province's pro-independence ethnic Albanians.
Serbia's ultranationalist Radical Party vehemently rejected the plan, saying that if the European Union continues to endorse it, Serbia should end its attempts to join the bloc.
Serbia's control over Kosovo was suspended in 1999 when NATO intervened in the war there between Serb troops and the separatists. The UN plan for a lasting solution envisages self-rule for Kosovo, the right to have its own constitution, a flag, anthem and to seek membership in international organizations.
Serbian leaders _ who have been trying to form a new government following parliamentary elections _ have been invited to make suggestions about the Kosovo plan before it goes before the UN Security Council for possible approval.
Belgrade has relied on support from Russia, where officials have said that solving the Kosovo issue requires full consent from both sides in the dispute.
Serbia has offered some self-rule for Kosovo, including the right to join international bodies, but without a formal redrawing of borders or complete secession of the province that Serbs cherish as their historic heartland.
Belgrade's concern is also the fate of the dwindling Serb community in Kosovo. Some 100,000 Serbs still live in the province, down from 300,000 before the war.
Ahtisaari's plan envisages a high degree of autonomy for Serbs within Kosovo, but the community's leaders claim it falls short of ensuring protection for them.
Milan Ivanovic, a Kosovo Serb leader, called Ahtisaari's proposal "political terrorism,'' and a "one-sided, Albanian solution.''
Serbs will hold a protest rally in northern Kosovo on Friday to show their "determination to our state of Serbia that we want to stay part of it,'' Ivanovic said. "We reject any form of (Kosovo) independence.''
