For Besim Beqaj, president of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, 2007 was to be the year for the economic promotion of an independent or soon-to-be-independent country.

On the assumption that negotiations over the territory's disputed status would be completed by the end of 2006, Mr Beqaj and his colleagues decided to start drumming up foreign investment. But with the negotiations still in deadlock, their hopes have been dashed. "These delays have made lots of problems for business," says Mr Beqaj.