Ahtisaari made the statement after meeting the leaders of three Serb municipalities in the north of the UN-governed province. He went on to say that talks with Kosovo Albanian officials on decentralisation and minority rights would be held again in Pristina later in the afternoon.
More progress is needed in decentralisation and it is of particular importance that Serbs in northern Kosovo are acquainted with the negotiating process, Ahtisaari said.
The UN official recalled that the issue of decentralisation was separated from the issue of Kosovo's final status, a matter in which Pristina and Belgrade have not made any progress.
The head of Zvecane municipality said that agreement had been reached with Ahtisaari to give new municipalities in Kosovo strong powers in the education, health, police and judiciary sectors.