Serbia wants good ties with Albania, says president

TIRANA, Jan. 7 – Serbian President Boris Tadic said that Belgrade was intered in having good relations with Albania as a precondition on further steps towwards european integration efforts.
The move was made in a speech Tadic held to Serb ambassadors referring to the regional cooperation.
“No country in the region shoudl be beoynd the attention of Serbia’s foreign policy and espcially that has to do with Albania,” he said.
He said it was intolerable that they neglected ties with Albania like in the last decade. “Serbia is interested in the cooperation with Albania,” he said.
On Wednesday Tadic celebrated Orthodox Christmas in Kosovo despite protests from majority ethnic Albanians who object to his visit.
Tadic was flown into the Serb Orthodox medieval monastery of Visoki Decane by a NATO helicopter amid tight security to spend the night with monks, light candles, burn yule logs and attend midnight Mass.
He said the purpose of his visit was to call for peace “to all people that share this difficult and complex area of the Balkans.”
Serbia rejects Kosovo’s independence and is lobbying countries not to recognize the new country. So far 64 nations have endorsed Kosovo’s secession from Serbia, including the United States and most countries of the European Union.
The visit drew strong criticism from Kosovo’s authorities that see the visit as a challenge to Kosovo’s statehood.
Tadic requested permission to visit the monastery from Kosovo’s international overseers, and the country’s government agreed to the visit only after international pressure.
The spokesman for Kosovo’s President Xhavit Beqiri said that Tadic’s visit was counterproductive.