Vuk Jeremic told The Associated Press in an interview that even the extent of Kosovo's links with Serbia are negotiable at the internationally mediated talks dealing with the future of the breakaway province.

Jeremic said Serbia is willing to give Kosovo Albanians "95 percent of competencies that are needed to govern" the province, where they represent 90 percent of the population.

"Basically, we are looking at the territory of Kosovo and what we are saying is that its future status will be determined by who runs what," Jeremic said in the first public revelation of details of Serbia's negotiation position.

"We are prepared to be flexible to where the dividing line goes," Jeremic said.

"I believe that our opening position is very generous and we are willing to talk about the details" at the next round of direct talks in Vienna, Austria, next Monday, Jeremic said.

Although Kosovo, a province of 2 million people, remains formally part of Serbia, it has been run by the U.N. and NATO since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended a Serbian military crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists there.

Kosovo Albanian leaders have repeatedly said they are seeking nothing but complete independence. Serbia wants to keep at least formal control over the province which it considers the cradle of its statehood and religion.

Jeremic said that Kosovo having a seat in the U.N. "is certainly something we cannot envisage under any circumstances."

He said the other prerogative Serbia is unwilling to give to the Albanians is "fully fledged" control of foreign policy — although the province would be allowed "full access" to foreign financial institutions and the ability open foreign representational offices "for the running of its own affairs."

Jeremic said Serbia is proposing that Kosovo should be fully demilitarized, in a way that would be supervised "by the international military presence, which is likely to stay there anyway."

He called for the talks to continue past Dec. 10 — when the U.S., Russian and EU mediators are supposed to submit their report to the United Nations — saying the time pressure was undermining chances of success.

"The deadline is actually killing the prospects for arriving to the compromise solution," Jeremic said. "Why would the Albanian side have an incentive to engage in the talks if they know what they would be getting after December 10 if no compromise was reached?"

The United States has suggested it would recognize Kosovo's independence if no compromise was reached by the deadline.

In case of a unilateral recognition of Kosovo by the U.S., "the situation is guaranteed to be worse" in the Balkans, Jeremic said.

"If there are no rules in Kosovo, why would there be any in the Balkans or the rest of the world?" he asked."