UNITED NATIONS-Serbia's prime minister and Kosovo's president got a green light Friday to present their opposing views on the future status of Kosovo to the U.N. Security Council next week.

The council's 15 members agreed that Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica would speak as the representative of his country and Kosovo's president, Fatmir Sejdiu, would speak in his private capacity at a closed council meeting, said Italy's U.N. Ambassador Marcello Spatafora, the current council president.

Since last week, the council has been discussing the format for the Dec. 19 meeting behind closed doors. The key issue has been whether to allow Sejdiu, who does not represent a country, to speak, and if so under what conditions.

The council meeting will focus on a report by United States, European Union and Russian mediators in two-year talks between Belgrade and Kosovo on resolving the status of the Serbian province. The talks ended in late November without an agreement.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, who comprise 90 percent of the 7 million population, refuse to budge from their demand for independence while Serbia, backed by its close ally Russia, insists that the province must remain part of its territory.

Kosovo's Sejdiu declared Wednesday that the province was a "few days away" from becoming independent of Serbia, but did not specify a date. Last week a spokesman for the Kosovo authorities said independence would be declared in the first months of 2008.

Key European nations and the U.S., who back Kosovo's demand for independence, insisted that Kosovo's representative be allowed to address the council on Dec. 19, while Russia was reluctant, council diplomats said. It was clear to the entire council that the U.S. and the Europeans had enough support to prevail if the issue was put to a vote, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were closed.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who is pressing for further negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina, said Friday that Russia proposed the compromise that was accepted, a private rather than public meeting where Kostunica and Sejdiu would present their views. Other interested countries can attend the closed meeting, but will not be allowed to speak.

"I'm particularly pleased by the show of goodwill and of result-oriented approach by everybody," Italy's Spatafora said.

Churkin said that in making the proposal "we proceeded from our position of principle that the parties should continue negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, that the international community should support them ... and should encourage them to reach a mutually acceptable solution to this problem."

"So the council will have this opportunity to hear the two sides and to give, we hope, the message of continued political effort," he said. "But at the same time it will be clear that the political standing of the two parties participating in the discussion is completely different."

Churkin has introduced elements for a council statement that would back additional negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo, but Britain, France, the U.S. and others have said the talks have been exhausted and it's time to resolve Kosovo's status.

At a European Union summit on Friday, leaders rejected immediate unilateral recognition of an independent Kosovo. They agreed instead to try to coordinate a phased-in recognition of Kosovo's independence and also left the door open for a negotiated settlement between Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders.

The EU leaders also agreed to send an 1,800-strong police and security mission to Kosovo to replace the current United Nations administrative mission.

But Russia's Churkin told reporters that "Belgrade wants the status issue to be settled before there is any change of the format of international presence in Kosovo."

Council members and the two parties should realize "that there is a good chance and that there is a possibility for the talks to be completed successfully, and we believe that that chance must be taken," he said.