PRISTINA, Serbia-Kosovo's president Wednesday urged Serbia to forever give up its claim to the province and cast doubt that upcoming talks would yield progress with both sides refusing to budge from their entrenched positions.

Hours before taking ethnic Albanian negotiators to Vienna for talks on the province's future, President Fatmir Sejdiu told The Associated Press that Serbia's attempt to keep Kosovo within its control was unacceptable to ethnic Albanians after the 1998-99 conflict.

"You can't force more than two million people to think differently and revert to the rule of a country it clashed with," he said in an interview at his office in Pristina.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders want independence. Sejdiu urged Serbia to give up the idea of retaining control of the province it sees as the spiritual birthplace of the Serbian nation and the heart of its medieval kingdom.

"It is important for Belgrade to understand that it is surely easier for them to give up their claim, once and for all," he said.

"Our vision is one of the future, and of closing the chapter of bloodshed, and the tragedies that people have endured."

About 10,000 people died during the 1998-99 war and some 2,000 remain missing in the aftermath of a brutal crackdown by Serb forces on separatist Albanians. The onslaught prompted NATO to wage an 78-day air war against the former Yugoslavia to try to end the fighting.

Since then Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and NATO. The province formally remains part of Serbia although daily affairs are run by local institutions dominated by ethnic Albanians, but supervised by the U.N.

On Thursday, ethnic Albanian leaders and Serbia's officials are to meet envoys from the United States, European Union and Russia to discuss the province's future political status.

The troika, as the group of envoys is known, is to report to U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon on the progress of the talks by Dec. 10.

The ethnic Albanian president said the 120-day effort would be the last in seeking an agreed solution with Serbia, warning any other delay in granting the province independence would be "counterproductive."

Sejdiu said a solution to the impasse with Belgrade was unlikely. "As positions stand, no," he said.

Ethnic Albanian leaders and Serbia previously engaged in yearlong talks led by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, acting on a U.N. mandate.

Ahtisaari proposed that Kosovo become independent but retain an international presence to guarantee the rights of the Serb minority.

The talks failed after Russia threatened to block any such move in the U.N. Security Council.

Western envoys have said dividing the province along ethnic lines, Serbs dominate about 15 percent of Kosovo, was an option, if the sides agreed. Officials from both sides however have rejected the idea.