Vatican ambassador in Belgrade, Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Orlando Antonini, said that relations between the Holy See and Serbia are excellent and that this is mainly due to the fact that the Holy See, like many other factors in the international community, has not recognized the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo.

This reinforces the position of Serbia, and strengthens Vatican's relations with the country's government, Antonini said in an interview with the Belgrade-based daily Politika.

Indicating that in Kosovo, which he visited on a number of occasions, members of the Catholic Church represents only four percent of the population, and since the Kosovo population consists almost entirely of the Albanian believers, Antonini said that it cannot be assumed how the Catholics view the self-proclaimed Kosovo independence.

Despite all this, on a general level, that is, on the political and institutional one, there seem to be no elements that could affect the Holy See to change its position of non-recognition of independence, Antonini underlined.

According to him, the Holy See will certainly maintain the same stand if the Council of Europe reports on organized crime in Kosovo prove accurate.

In any case, while waiting to see the results of the dialogue between Belgrade, expected after the Serbia-EU Resolution on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice was submitted to the United Nations, one might expect that the attitude of the international community should not change, at least not until the end of the talks, said the Vatican ambassador.

When asked if Pope Benedict XVI might visit Serbia in 2013, Antonini said that he hopes that this perspective is possible.