European Union foreign ministers have called for early talks between the Serbian government in Belgrade and authorities in Pristina to avert a repetition of last month's ethnic violence in Kosovo.
An EU report told the ministers that such violence, which killed 19 people, could not be ruled out unless conditions in the province are improved.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said that the EU remained opposed to a division of Kosovo into ethnically homogenous cantons to protect the Serbian minority. He suggested, however, that more administrative decentralisation was possible if the concept of a multi-ethnic society was maintained. "Clearly the idea of decentralisation as a concept for discussion is one that we think should be considered, on the basis that it doesn't mean cantonisation," he said.
Albanians, who form the majority in Kosovo, want the province to secede from Serbia but the EU fears that could encourage ethnic Albanians elsewhere in the Balkans to seek the creation of a greater Albania that could destabilise the region.
The report on Kosovo, which was prepared by the office of the EU foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, said that the international community should step up its efforts to promote moderate political forces within Kosovo and to encourage Serbs to engage in the political process.
Mr Cowen said that the EU remained firm that Kosovo must achieve certain democratic standards before its future status could be discussed.