BELGRADE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Serbia is ready to continue negotiations with Kosovo authorities within the Brussels dialogue, after they were stopped recently as a result of assassination of a prominent Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Zahir Tanin.
According to the government press release published on Friday evening, Brnabic estimated that the general security situation in Kosovo was "very sensitive and serious after the murder of Ivanovic" that took place on January 16 in the city of Mitrovica.
Less than three weeks ago, several hours after Ivanovic's murder, all major media in Serbia reported that the Brussels dialogue, the process aiming to normalize the relations between Serbia and Kosovo, was stopped, and that the Serbian delegation that was about to begin another round of talks on that same day left Brussels and returned to Belgrade.
Serbian southern province of Kosovo and Metohija was put in 1999 under UN interim administration after the bombing campaign of the Northern Athlantic Threaty Organization (NATO) against Yugoslavia.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province.
According to the release, Brnabic expressed her dissatisfaction with the fact that the Serbian security services are not allowed to participate in the investigation of the assassination, while Tanin replied that investigators in Pristina will increase their efficiency in solving the crime, with the support of all international agencies in the field.
The release reads that Tanin stressed the importance of the normalization of relations with the authorities in Pristina by continuing negotiations and implementing agreements, while Brnabic insisted that so far the other side obstructed the negotiation because it failed to establish the Association of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo envisaged by the Brussels Agreement.
The two talked about the importance of UNMIK's presence in Kosovo and that UN Security Council should continue to hold frequent public meetings about the province.
The exact date of the next round of talks between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels hasn't been announced so far.
