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Kosovo faces isolation, EU warns

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- The European Union has warned the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo that they face international isolation unless attacks on Serbs are halted.

EU officials attending a Balkan summit in Skopje, Macedonia, warned that continued fighting just outside Kosovo could dry up international aid to the Serbian province.

They said the attacks could stop the flow of money and torpedo ethnic Albanian desires for increased autonomy for the province.

And they condemned attacks such as the bus bombing that killed at least 10 Serbs last week as barbaric.

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EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Christopher Patten said: "The people of Kosovo need a wake up call, because it is the whole of Kosovo that risks paying -- literally and figuratively -- if this barbarism carries on."

Patten bluntly told Kosovo Albanians to stop backing or tolerating violence. He added: "It is time for every Kosovar leader, every Kosovar to make a stand.

"It is time to abandon silent indifference, time to make clear that you will not tolerate this violence, time to stand up against it and outlaw its perpetrators.

"If it does not happen, it will be a tragedy. Because the rest of this region is moving forward now, along the road to a peaceful, prosperous future. Most people across the region are sick and tired of conflict and war."

The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, also warned ethnic Albanian leaders to "take immediate action to stop this senseless violence" or risk the consequences.

"The continuation of violence will affect the fledging stability of the region as a powerful deterrent to direct foreign aid," Solana said.

If ethnic Albanian leaders don't act to stop it, "some members of the international community will raise unpleasant but valid questions about whether Kosovars are ready for substantial autonomy," he added.

Leaders from Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Yugoslavia, and a representative from Croatia also attended the summit.

The situation in southern Serbia monopolised discussions, and smothered talks on increased economic cooperation and efforts to bring the region closer to the EU after a decade of wars.

Presidents and prime ministers said violence in the Presevo valley, part of the buffer zone, posed a direct and immediate threat to regional stability and prospects for improving the economies in some of Europe's poorest countries.

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica urged the international community to stop talking and take "energetic steps" to stop the violence, including the abolition of the five-kilometre-wide (three-mile-wide) buffer zone where much of the fighting is taking place. NATO is said to be considering the plan.

"It is no longer a security zone, but merely a base for terrorist activity and the major source of the threat," he said.

One step being taken by the U.N. is that police will increase penalties for illegal possession of arms in an attempt to change Kosovo's gun culture, the U.N. police commissioner said on Friday.

Those found with "weapons of war" in the southern Serbian province from early June will face up to 10 years in jail and fines of up to 20,000 German marks ($9,300).

Greece, the only EU country in the Balkans, suggested that a peace plan prepared by Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic could offer a solution.

"Any intensification of the situation will have catastrophic results for the region," said Greek Premier Costas Simitis. "All those involved are playing with fire."

Macedonia is concerned the conflict already may have spread across its border following a series of incidents along its frontier with southern Serbia, including an exchange of fire last week between a group of Kosovo Albanians and an army patrol.

Albanians make up about a quarter of Macedonia's two million people, but ethnic tensions in the tiny state so far have not erupted into major violence.

Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski warned that it would be "extremely dangerous if the international community underestimated the need for an urgent resolution" of the conflict.

During the summit, Trajkovski signed a landmark agreement with Kostunica to demarcate their borders, an issue that has remained unresolved since the break-up of Yugoslavia a decade ago.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.