US support for Kosovan independence is undermining efforts to reach a compromise solution on the province's future, encouraging its Albanian majority towards a unilateral declaration of independence, Boris Tadic, the Serbian president, said yesterday.

MrTadic was speaking on the eve of face-to-face talks between Serbia and the Kosovans, their first since March, at which he said Belgrade would offer a "unique" level of autonomy for the province that would nevertheless fall short of full statehood.