(BRDO PRI KRANJU) - Serbia is committed to joining the European Union although it will keep up its "diplomatic fight" against Kosovo's independence, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Saturday.

Jeremic, in Slovenia for talks with EU foreign ministers, narrowly avoided meeting Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci -- also invited for talks on the Balkans -- thereby dashing EU hopes for a landmark get-together.

It was nonetheless an ice-breaker between Serbia and European nations, being the first such high-level meeting since Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade last month.

The EU foreign ministers, beginning the second and final day of talks in Brdo, near Ljubljana, had invited western Balkans foreign ministers and Thaci -- the prime mover in Kosovo's independence bid -- for talks on the region.

"I personally won't be attending because I am going back to Belgrade in 20 minutes," Jeremic told reporters in Brdo as Thaci arrived for the talks, with the pair just a corridor apart.

However Jeremic declared that "despite all differences (with the EU) we remain committed to the path of European integration".

"In a few years Serbia is going to become a member of the EU... maybe four, five or six years," he added.

He insisted however that Serbia would continue its "diplomatic fight" in order to "preserve our territorial integrity".

Serbia considers mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo to be one of its cultural heartlands. Its bid to hang on to the breakaway province has strong support from Russia, while the United States, as well as most EU nations, have already recognised Pristina.

European diplomats said Jeremic had little room for political manoeuvre ahead of Serbian elections on May 11.

"Everyone knows that if we get a government centred around the radicals in Serbia, we are fairly certain that there is going to be ... a difficult time for Serbia," in terms of its economy and social development, warned Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.

He added that such a result would also be bad news for Kosovo and increase strains in Bosnia.

The outgoing government, an uneasy coalition that included President Boris Tadic's hardline nationalists, collapsed on March 8 over how to deal with the EU over Kosovo.

Though Jeremic left Brdo before the EU-Balkans talks got under way, he said there was no "empty chair" as Serbia was still being represented there.

Thaci, upon his arrival, told reporters that the goal of "our independent country" is to become a member of both the European Union and NATO.

He said his new nation would "work very hard to implement democratic criteria and to build a democratic and multi-ethnic country."

He repeated assurances that the Serbian minority in northern Kosovo could participate in the government at all levels.

Bildt said the Kosovo officials present were not a national delegation but were grouped with the United Nations, which has administered the territory since 1999, when NATO intervened to stop Belgrade's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

For several months most EU nations have been in favour of signing an association accord with Serbia, the first step towards membership of the bloc.

However the Dutch and Belgian foreign ministers repeated Friday that Belgrade should first help bring former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, one of the most wanted men in Europe, to the UN war crimes tribunal.

The EU's Slovenian presidency in a statement Saturday underlined the need for the whole of the western Balkans, including Kosovo, to move towards EU membership.

Meanwhile the Serbian minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said the May 11 national, regional and municipal and elections would also be organised in the territory, the Tanjug news agency reported.

"They (the Serbs in Kosovo) will choose their representatives too on May 11," Samardzic said in Belgrade.

He gave no indication of how such a ballot would be carried out in the face of opposition from Kosovo's government. The UN has yet to give its opinion.

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