The Kosovo question is this week moving into its most difficult phase since the 1999 expulsion of the forces of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader.

The United Nations-sponsored talks to bring together Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders have, as expected, ended in failure. As Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary- general, was told in a report last week, there is no possibility of a deal between Belgrade, which insists Kosovo remains Serbia's, and the ethnic Albanians demanding independence.