NEW YORK -- Tuesday, Nov 30 - The main conclusion of the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Kosovo could be that the province is on the threshold of a decision on its final political status.

The head of the UN's mission in the province, Soeren Jessen-Petersen, said that a key phase is beginning in Kosovo in which it is more important than ever before that the UN's political strategy be brought into line with the readiness of KFOR to respond.

Meanwhile, the head of Belgrade's Kosovo Coordination Centre, Nebojsa Covic, told the council that the decentralisation of power in the province would be the best way to ensure the survival, safety and repatriation of Serbs and other non-Albanians.

B92's New York correspondent, Helena Djordjevic, reports that Jessen-Petersen claims that the security situation in Kosovo has significantly improved since the wave of violence which swept the province in March this year. He says, however, that the interim government institutions still have a lot to do in order to establish a multicultural society.

Jessen-Petersen also said that it could not be expected that all four hundred individual demands in the internationally imposed Standards for Kosovo would be met by the middle of next year, but that he was seeking progress from the Kosovo institutions in meeting the most important goals of the rule of law, freedom of movement, repatriations and security.

The Kosovo governor told the council that Kosovo is now entering a key phase and that it is important that the strength of the international peacekeeping mission be maintained at its present level. The partitioning of the province is neither desirable nor feasible, he said, but added that the security situation must allow the progress of decentralisation and effective local government.

Security Council members had earlier reviewed the report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Kosovo in which he said that, despite the excesses of the March violence, it was too early to discuss the province's final status.

Covic presented the position of the Serbian Government that decentralisation would be the best way to ensure the survival, safety and repatriation of Serbs and other non-Albanians.

"If Serbs can autonomously decide on a number of points of vital interest to them, their participation in all other local government institutions would be much easier," he said.

Covic added that the best solution for the normalisation of the situation in Kosovo would be to bring the UNMIK and Serbian Government plans for decentralisation into conformity., with the active participation of Belgrade in the discussions.