Western nations announced on Friday that they are not seeking a UN Security Council vote on their draft resolution concerning Kosovo's future status.

"We regret that it has been impossible to secure such a resolution in the UN Security Council," French Ambassador Jean-Marc De La Sabliere said, reading a joint statement of the six sponsors. "We will therefore put on hold discussions of the resolution."

He said the negotiations will now be pursued through the Contact Group on Kosovo, which is composed of Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the United States and Russia.

The announcement came after consultations among the 15 members failed to win enough support for the draft sponsored by Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

Russia was against the draft, which calls for further negotiations between Belgrade and Kosovo's ethic Albanians during a 120-day period but drops a previous reference to an automatic road to internationally supervised independence if the talks fail.

"Russia was not prepared to support this draft resolution and ...was not prepared to abstain if this draft were put to vote," said Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.

He said Russia called for a pause for continued active consultations and was glad that the Western sponsors "did accept the possibility and need for further negotiations between the parties."

Churkin said Moscow will continue to participate in the process actively, and will be participating in the Contact Group meeting in Vienna on July 25.

European Union foreign ministers will discuss Kosovo at their meeting on July 23.

Churkin denied accusations that Moscow is delaying the "dangerous status quo" in Kosovo. "We are not delay anything. We are preventing a solution ... which will be detrimental to international law and to the stability of the Balkans and internationally."

He was referring to UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's plan to give Kosovo supervised independence in spite of Serbian objections.

The Ahtisaari plan was the basis of the draft resolution sponsored by the six Western countries, which insisted on Friday that the special envoy's recommendations "provide the best solution that will advance stability not only in Kosovo but in the region as a whole" and that they should be the "base for any further discussions."

"We hope that these discussions will lead to agreement between the parties," the sponsors said in their joint statement. "If not, we continue to believe that the Ahtisaari Plan is the best way forward."

Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya, the Security Council's president for July, said the parties directly concerned should be given more time to conduct negotiations.

"If you want to see a solution, it has to be a negotiated solution between the two parties. If they come to an agreement, we are ready to respect their wishes," Wang said. "If there is no agreement, it would be difficult for China to agree that the Security Council impose a solution on them."

"Whatever actions the Security Council takes will have serious implications, not only for the region but also for other countries as well," he added.

Kosovo, a breakaway province of Serbia, has been under UN administration since 1999. Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2007)