UN Kosovo plan: No mention of independence

Kosovo was widely expected to take its first tentative step toward statehood today with the unveiling of a UN proposal for the future of the bitterly-contested province.

Western diplomats familiar with the details of UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari’s plan said it would not explicitly mention independence, but would lay the groundwork for conditional, internationally-supervised statehood. The blueprint still needs approval from the UN Security Council.