Kosovo problem is top priority on agenda of Putin's talks with Kostunica

The Kosovo issue will be a major theme of the talks of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

President Putin's meeting with Mr. Kostunica is slated to be held in Sochi on June 3. In the course of the meeting it is planned to discuss the state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, and to share views on the actual situation in the state community of Serbia and Montenegro, the Kosovo problems, and regional and European issues.

Kosovo remains the principal outstanding issue in the context of the regional security, the Moscow officials note. Russia emphatically condemned the recent outbreak of violence, which led to the ethnic purges of the area's Serbian population.

As the Kremlin source recalled, in this connection Moscow made a number of political moves, and promptly rendered and is continuing to render humanitarian aid to the Serbian refugees. Russia's MChS (Emergencies Ministry) arranged two tent camps for the Serbian refugees, each with accommodation for 1,000.

Alongside foodstuffs and medicines, mobile power plants and equipment for field kitchens was sent to Serbia.

"As many as 102 module houses will be supplied to Kosovo in May-June 2004," the Kremlin representative told RIA Novosti, and noted that the first consignments of houses had already arrived in Serbia and Montenegro.

"The total cost of the humanitarian operation is in excess of one million dollars," the source noted.

He also said that 500 Serbian children from Kosovo would have vacations in Russia this June.

"The necessity to overcome the consequences of the extremist actions becomes particularly topical at this stage of Kosovo settlement," the Kremlin officials stress.

According to the agency's source, Moscow proceeds from the idea that in its activity international presence in Kosovo should maximally take into account the statement by the chairman of the UN Security Council, which was adopted on April 30, 2004 and contains a list of priority moves to stabilize the situation in the area.

"The international community must take the most resolute measures to normalize the situation, and to undeviatingly and fully implement resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council," the Kremlin officials believe.