Stating that he was not speaking on Washington's behalf, Holbrooke said Serbia would have to decide towards the end of the year and that whether it would continue its road to the EU or not would directly depend on the decision.
Holbrooke maintained that Kosovo should be given independence but with absolute guarantees of security and respect for the property and religious and cultural freedoms of minorities, notably Serbs.
He said Serbia had lost Kosovo because of Slobodan Milosevic's policy and that it would do best to acknowledge this reality.
Holbrooke said he did not know at the moment which institutions in Kosovo could guarantee security to non-Albanians.
He said this was a very important issue and that the permanent presence of international peacekeepers was imperative in Kosovo because the authorities were not in the condition to protect Serbs.
Holbrooke cited the example of Bosnia and Herzegovina, saying that no one was bothered by the fact that international troops were still there even 10 years after the signing of the Dayton agreement.
He dismissed speculation that United States troops would withdraw from Kosovo due to operations in other parts of the world. He underlined that President George Bush had said that the Europeans and the Americans had come to Kosovo together and would withdraw together.