(ANSA) - BELGRADE - According to the ethnic Albanian population living in southern Serbia, their situation and their demands for greater autonomy should be included among the issues to be dealt with during the dialogue on the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

According to a 'political statement' issued by the assembl of the three regions inhabited by the ethnic Albanian population - Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja - the goal is to obtain, on a mutual basis, the same rights and level of autonomy that Belgrade is requesting for the Serbian minority in northern Kosovo. Without resolving the issue of Albanian rights in the 'Presevo valley' - that's the current name of Serbia's southern region inhabited by the ethnic Albanian minority - there can be no full normalisation of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. The 'political statement' says that both the Kosovar president Hashim Thaci and the prime minister Ramush Haradinaj represent the interests of the ethnic Albanian population living in southern Serbia at the EU-mediated talks.

However, this request was immediately rejected by the Serbian leadership: Zoran Stankovic, responsible in the Serbian government for relations with the municipalities of the 'Presevo Valley', said that the issue regarding the Albanians in southern Serbia is not among those foreseen by the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. (ANSA).