U.S. ENVOY: DIRECT NEGOTIATIONS ON KOSOVO FOR NOW UNPRODUCTIVE

( Editorial: --> 4952 ) PRISTINA, Aug 21 (Hina) - American envoy for Kosovo, United States Ambassador to Macedonia Chris Hill, on Thursday announced he would not try to establish direct peace negotiations between the Serbian authorities and Kosovo Albanians. Instead he said he would try to reduce the differences between the two sides through indirect contacts. I would like to emphasis that we are not trying to bring the two sides together, as it seems more productive for us to travel from one to the other, Hill told reporters after his talks in Pristina with Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova and the head of the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team, Fehmi Agani. Right now we are working on very definite concepts for a political solution and we are doing this with indirect resources. We will continue this way for some time. The process of indirect negotiations is moving forward and is very active, Hill said. He added that also mentioned at the meeting was the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo and emphasised that the civilian population needed to be returned to their homes as soon as possible. (Hina) mbr 211409 MET aug 98