The United Nations Security Council failed to bridge deep divisions over the future of Kosovo today as Western countries said they would take the lead in steering the province to independence from Serbia.
With Western backing, Kosovo 's 90 per cent Albanian majority is preparing to declare independence within weeks, setting up a showdown with Serbia and its big power backer Russia.
"The potential for a negotiated solution is now exhausted," a joint statement by the EU ambassadors on the council and the United States said.
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica warned that a unilateral declaration of independence backed by Western countries would undermine the UN Charter and mark the start of a new era "in which might is above right."
He said it would spark a "serious crisis," but he declined to say what action Serbia might take.
Fatmir Sejdiu, president of the UN-run province, told the council the collapse of the former Yugoslavia was "one of the great tragedies of the modern era."
"We are exhausted after nearly two decades of isolation, war and political limbo," he said, recalling the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians in the 1990s that he said made co-existence of Serbia and Kosovo in the same state impossible.
It was the first council debate since a "troika" of mediators - the EU, Russia and the United States - said this month that four months of talks had failed to reach a deal with no compromise on either side on the key issue of sovereignty.
The meeting ended with no action taken - an outcome the EU and the United States have said amounts to closing the door on U.N. efforts to resolve Kosovo 's status.
Russia's ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said there was still room for negotiation.