The Kosovo talks return to Vienna today, starting a new round of dialogue aimed at building international support for Kosovo's independence. Despite the deadlock in the U.N. Security Council created by the threat of a Russian veto, I am confident that this new effort will help the international community, especially the European Union, achieve the consensus needed to move forward to a successful conclusion this year.

Kosovo's leaders have made many trips to Vienna over the last year and half to make our case for independence. Until now we were negotiating inside a U.N. framework, led by the secretary-general's envoy, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. In those talks, we demonstrated our commitment to making an independent Kosovo a home not only for its majority Albanians, but also for our Serbs and other communities. The result was Mr. Ahtisaari's plan for supervised independence for Kosovo, with a continued but lighter presence of NATO-led peacekeepers and EU-led international police to ensure stability in the initial years of statehood.

The Ahtisaari plan remains a workable compromise that will move both Kosovo and the whole Balkan region forward, provided it acquires sufficient international support. Kosovo's parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed the plan, and my government is preparing intensively to implement it. We are committed to realizing the plan's provisions to give the Kosovo Serb minority the space they need to develop democratically and prosper in tandem with the Kosovo Albanians. We will also ensure that the Kosovo Serbs will not be cut off from institutional support from Serbia, which we recognize is important to them for cultural, religious and historical reasons.

With those commitments in place, our aim in the talks now is not to re-cover old ground. Today our task is to look to the first day after independence and elaborate a new vision of how Kosovo as a state will work to develop a constructive and neighborly relationship with Serbia.

We must begin by looking at our common destiny with Serbia: integrating into the trans-Atlantic community of democracy, prosperity and security. If we begin by recognizing our common aspirations, we must together acknowledge the necessity to relate to each other not only as equals, but as friends and partners.

This will not be easy. But we can and must begin now to embark on a sincere path of reconciliation between our states and peoples. Overcoming the animosities of the past and moving beyond the tragedies of war is hard work, but the example of postwar Europe shows us that it can be done.

We cannot erase the tragic history of the conflicts that resulted from the collapse of Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, we must continue together to address the most sensitive issues remaining from the war, in particular resolving the fate of the thousands of people still missing, and the return of the refugees displaced in 1999.

As we work to move beyond the legacy of conflict with Serbia, we must also tackle the range of practical challenges that affect all the states in the Western Balkans: fighting cross-border crime and trafficking, improving economic cooperation and trade, and facilitating the movement of people, goods and capital to bring us closer to the European model of open borders.

Making independence the success we all desire requires European commitment. The Ahtisaari plan shows us the way forward to a peaceful, democratic and multiethnic Kosovo ready to take its place in the region. Of course it would be preferable to have a U.N. mandate to move forward on implementing the Ahtisaari plan. But we remain confident that nothing can stop the European project from succeeding.

A Europe whole and free must include the Western Balkans. We are committed to creating a stable, neighborly relationship between Kosovo and Serbia as the next step toward this goal.

Mr. Çeku is prime minister of Kosovo.

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