United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic held talks on Kosovo at a meeting at UN headquarters in New York on July 29 2010, the UN News Service said.

The meeting came one week after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) released its advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February 2008, which Belgrade rejects.

By 10 votes to four, judges at the ICJ concluded that the declaration does not breach either general international law, a Security Council resolution from 1999 following the end of fighting in Kosovo, or the constitutional framework that was adopted by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on behalf of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

UNMIK was established after Western forces drove out Yugoslav forces amid inter-ethnic fighting in 1999. Ethnic Albanians outnumber ethnic Serbs and other minorities by about nine to one in Kosovo.

Ban said that he planned to closely co-ordinate next steps with the European Union (EU), which has offered to facilitate a process of dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade.

He and Jeremic also discussed a Serbian draft General Assembly resolution on this subject, Ban’s spokesperson said.

Ban said he continued to appeal to all sides to support constructive dialogue and the settlement of all remaining concerns, while encouraging political stability and discouraging provocations.

Earlier, the Serbian mission to the United Nations submitted a proposed resolution on Kosovo to the UN General Assembly, calling "on all sides to find a mutually acceptable solution to all disputed issues through peaceful dialogue, with the aim of achieving peace, security and co-operation in the region," according to the Serbian government website – but making no explicit reference to wanting talks re-opened on the status of Kosovo.
 
The proposed resolution is a sequel to the announcement on July 22 2010 by the International Court of Justice that it did not see the February 2008 unilateral declaration of independence in Pristina as in violation of international law.
 
According to Serbia’s foreign ministry, which published the full text of the proposed resolution, the draft asks the General Assembly "aware that an agreement has not been reached between the sides on the consequences of the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo from Serbia," and "taking into account the fact that one-sided secession cannot be an accepted way for resolving territorial issues," to state three points.
 
These are that the UN General Assembly "acknowledges the Advisory opinion of the ICJ passed on July 22 2010 on whether the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo is in line with international law," "calls on the sides to find a mutually acceptable solution for all disputed issues through peaceful dialogue, with the aim of achieving peace, security and co-operation in the region, and "decides to include in the interim agenda of the 66th session an item namely: ‘Further activities following the passing of the advisory opinion of the ICJ on whether the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo is in line with international law’."
 
Serbia said that the resolution was submitted after consultation with many international member states, including all permanent members of the Security Council.

However, a report in Pristina daily Express said that the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had circulated a resolution among all EU member states, calling on the UN General Assembly to accept the ICJ.

The proposed EU resolution, according to the daily, encourages both parties to talk but makes no reference to the issue of Kosovo’s status. The paper carries what it says is the full text of the resolution.

It quoted unidentified diplomatic sources as saying that the permanent missions of the EU member states at the UN had several days to say whether they would endorse the proposed resolution.

In Belgrade, Serbian daily Blic said that most UN Security Council members had rejected Serbia's proposed resolution.

According to Blic, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France saw the resolution as unacceptable because of Belgrade's reference to "open issues". These states, all of which recognise Kosovo as independent, say that there can be negotiations only about technical issues, not "all open issues" because the latter could include talks about Kosovo's status.

Currently, 69 countries recognise Kosovo as independent. Those that do not include UN Security Council permanent members Russia and China. Of EU member states, 22 out of 27 have recognised Kosovo as independent, the exceptions being Greece, Romania, Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia.