By IRNA
New York : A split emerged at the United Nations Security Council when Russia said Kosovo’s declaration of independence should be null and void.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on all sides to keep to their commitments and refrain from violence.
A second emergency session of the Security Council is due to be held on Monday.
A number of European countries are expected to recognize Kosovo as an independent state after EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday.
Britain, France and Germany are likely to support the fledgling state but some fear it will set a dangerous precedent.
Kosovo’s parliament unanimously backed independence on Sunday but Serbia’s PM denounced it as a “false state”.
Russia’s UN ambassador said there was no basis for changing a 1999 security council resolution on Kosovo’s status – which hands Kosovo to the UN.
But seven Western states including the United States, the UK, Belgium and France issued a statement saying the situation had moved on.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said, “I hope we are going to have a platform that is united with virtually everyone.”
“We are determined to take up our own responsibilities, as states and through the EU and NATO, to secure stability and security in the region,” Belgium’s UN ambassador Johan Verbeke said.