Kosovo president sours on idea of land swap with Serbia

Kosovo's president has rejected any idea of a land swap with Serbia.

Hashim Thaci said Friday in the Albanian capital Tirana that "a land swap would never occur."

Last year, Thaci had proposed a "border correction," with Kosovo getting Serbia's southern Presevo Valley and giving nothing in exchange, without explaining how Serbia would accept that.

Tensions between the neighbours has persisted since Kosovo's 1998-99 war for independence that ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign, then to be run by the UN. Kosovo officially declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Belgrade refuses to recognize.

The European Union has told Serbia and Kosovo they must normalize their ties if either is to have a chance of joining the bloc.

Some officials in Serbia and Kosovo have suggested a land swap. The areas concerned would be Serbia's Presevo Valley where ethnic Albanians are a majority for Kosovo's northern Mitrovica, where most are ethnic Serbs.

Kosovo-Serbia negotiations, starting in 2011 under the EU's auspices, have been strained after Pristina's decision to set a 100 per cent import tariff on Serb and Bosnian goods until Belgrade recognizes its sovereignty and stops preventing it from joining international organizations.

Belgrade says it won't take further part in the negotiations until the tariff is revoked.

Thaci also turned down the idea of a Greater Albania saying that "Kosovo's union, the union of the Albanian nation is the union with the EU and NATO and the eternal friendship with the U.S."