Draskovic said Belgrade saw the solution to the Kosovo issue in autonomy and not independence, adding that the same principle had been proposed with the Z4 plan in the early 1990s for the former Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) in Croatia.
Draskovic said the rights which Z4 envisaged for the Croat minority in RSK would be guaranteed to the Serb minority in Kosovo. He recalled that Z4 precluded changing Croatia's state border and that RSK had to stay within Croatia, adding that the same territorial integrity would now apply to Serbia.
The minister recalled that Z4 envisaged a parliament, a government, a president, a police force, a currency, certain international connections, and the Serbs' right to have representatives in the Croatian parliament and government. He said those rights provided the Serb minority in Croatia with the biggest guarantees possible in accordance with the positive discrimination policy.
Draskovic said autonomy for Kosovo would also stabilise Bosnia-Herzegovina because everything that Albanians would get in Kosovo as the majority population, the Serbs in the Bosnian Serb entity would get too.
Asked what the international community thought about this plan, Draskovic said Brussels saluted the formula.
According to the minister, the world realises that Kosovo's future status must be the result of a compromise, an unconventional solution. He said that no minister in Serbia would sign a document on Kosovo's independence, which he added would destabilise Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Albania if proclaimed against Serbia's will.
He added that independence for Kosovo would make the Bosnian Serb entity, the Turkish part of Cyprus, the Basque country, Northern Ireland, Corsica, and South Ossetia demand independence as well.
Regarding the likely postponement of Serbia and Montenegro's talks with the European Union about the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), Draskovic said the technical obstacle was the fugitive Hague war crimes tribunal indictee Ratko Mladic.
The minister said Mladic must not become a strategic obstacle, adding that in Brussels he would advocate the policy of equal standards.
He said Croatia became a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme and completed negotiations on a SAA even though Ante Gotovina, who is also wanted by the Hague tribunal, is still at large. He added he would ask the same for Serbia, underlining that the Mladic issue should have been settled a long time ago, and voiced confidence Serbia would soon become a Partnership for Peace member and join NATO in 2007.