[ALBSA-Info] Balkans Contact Group considering Paris meeting

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Balkans Contact Group considering Paris meeting

  
PARIS, March 30 (Reuters) - The major power Contact Group on former 
Yugoslavia is considering meeting in Paris soon but some scheduling problems 
still have to be resolved, Paris-based diplomats said on Friday. 

A visit by Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to the French capital could 
be the occasion for the meeting to review Balkans policies pursued by the 
Group including the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Britain and 
Italy, they said. 

Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Thursday that Ivanov had said a 
meeting would take place in Paris, where diplomats said he was due on a visit 
on April 11. 

Asked about the reports, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau 
said: "Discussions among the six political directors of this group has led to 
convergence of analyses on the policies to follow and that should lead to a 
ministerial meeting in the near future." 

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Secretary of 
State Colin Powell was considering attending a Contact Group meeting in Paris 
on April 11. "But it (the meeting) is not decided yet," he added. 

Ivanov, quoted by Interfax news agency, gave no details about the grounds for 
holding one of the group's infrequent ministerial meetings -- within days of 
a Macedonian government offensive against ethnic Albanian guerrillas. 

But he said the positions of Russia, the United States and the group's 
European members were united "despite a few nuances" in their view of the 
threat of "terrorism" in the region. 

West European sources said foreign ministry political directors of the 
Contact Group -- first created to oversee Bosnia peace talks in 1994-95 -- 
met in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Macedonia and 
Kosovo. 

But they said there had been no agreement on making an announcement about the 
meeting and expressed irritation at Ivanov's reported comments. 

Officials at the British Foreign Office in London said Contact Group 
officials discussed Macedonia at a meeting this week, but offered no further 
details.