The United States indicated on Monday it would agree to pushing back an end-of-year deadline for the release of a UN final status proposal for Kosovo -- a plan expected to recommend sovereignty to the troubled Serbian province.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a newspaper interview over the weekend that talks on the future of Kosovo led by UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari could drag on into 2007, notably due to staunch Serbian opposition to Kosovan independence.
Ahtisaari is due to present his conclusions before the end of the year to the so-called Kosovo Contact Group made up of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States.
Washington has in the past insisted the timetable be honoured.
But State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said on Monday that the administration would be open to a delay if requested by Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland.
"Obviously, we want to support him and we'd be interested in hearing from him if he believes it needs to require additional time to do it," Casey said, adding that Ahtisaari had not yet requested the deadline be pushed back.
In the interview, Annan told the Croatian daily Vjesnik that he was concerned a December deadline for Ahtisaari's proposals could play into the hands of Serbian nationalists if that country holds early elections next month as planned.
"Ahtisaari must be careful that the issue of the final status of Kosovo is not used for electoral purposes," Annan said. "The proposals for Kosovo must be put forward at the right moment."
A senior US official echoed Annan's remarks.
"We want this to be done in a way that makes sense and we certainly want to give Ahtisaari the time that he needs," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"If he were to come to us and say 'We need more time', we'd obviously consider it," he said.
The negotiations led by Ahtisaari have been deadlocked for a month.
A Kosovo newspaper reported last week that Ahtisaari had proposed offering "limited sovereignty" to the ethnic Albanians, who comprise around 90 percent of the province's two million population.
Kosovo has been managed by the UN since 1999, when a 78-day NATO bombing campaign halted a crackdown by Serbian forces against Kosovo's separatist Albanian rebels.
Speaking during a visit the Slovakian capital Bratislava on Monday, Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian prime minister, Agim Ceku, urged the international community not to delay its decision on the province's status.
"I think delay will not bring any benefits to anyone. Ahtisaari is ready. He has prepared his package, his proposals," Ceku said. Belgrade on Monday demanded the resignation of Ahtisaari, accusing him of bias against Serbia.
A week earlier, 53 percent of Serbian voters backed in a referendum a new constitution which declares Kosovo an inalienable part of Serbia.