Kostunica issued a press release on Thursday expressing belief that "all relevant political factors in Serbia will give priority to general, state and national interests over their individual matters and that we shall soon adjust the text of the Constitution, or we shall work for the interests of those who want to take Kosovo from us".
In the press release, the Serbian premier underlined the role of Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin in advocating what Kostunica described as "a principled position that international law must be respected and that there are no changes of borders of sovereign states and that only agreement on Kosovo, which could be accepted by both sides, can be approved by the UN Security Council".
Kostunica's statement followed after parliamentary parties in the Serbian assembly intensified talks on reaching agreement on the new Serbian constitution.
In Serbia, the constitution promulgated in 1990, when the country was a part of the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, is still in effect.
Kosovo's total population is estimated at between 1.8 and two million, with local Albanians accounting for 88 percent of the population and Serbs accounting for seven percent.
During the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), Kosovo used to be the southern autonomous province of the Socialist Republic of Serbia. With Slobodan Milosevic coming to power in Serbia, ethnic tension in Kosovo rose and local Albanians were subjected to the terror of his regime, which was why NATO launched air strikes against Serbia in 1999. Time the number of local Serbs was shrinking as they were leaving for Serbia, while the portion of ethnic Albanians was on the rise.
By UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (adopted in 1999), Kosovo was in principle defined as an autonomous province within the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo is presently run by its Provisional Institutions of Self-Government and the UN Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), while security is maintained by the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) and the Kosovo Police Service.
Kosovo political leaders insist on the province being declared as an independent country.