BELGRADE - The constitution of the community of Serb municipalities (ZSO) is a priority, Director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric said in the talks with Ambassador of Britain Denis Keefe on Thursday and added that other priorities are embodied in ensuring the conditions for sustainable return of Serbs, protection of property, economic development and better living standards in the province.

Djuric and Keefe discussed the European integration process and pointed to the exceptional importance of constitution of the provincial government and the prerequisites for the continuation of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in full capacity.

According to a release issued by the Office for KiM, Djuric underscored that the position of Serbs in the province bears critical importance for the normalisation of relations, which is why Belgrade backed the participation of a unified Serb list in the provincial elections in June and provided support to a full integration of the Serb community into the provincial institutions.

The Serb community in KiM maintains the stand according to which they need to have their representatives in the provincial administration and in the same proportion and numbers as was the case in the period before 1999, not just in the currently envisaged percentage, because the international community cannot agree to the results of ethnic cleansing, he said.

Djuric and Keefe agreed that it is very important to continue the implementation of agreements reached in Brussels and added that the progress needs to be sought through practical steps.