Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said on Feb. 21 that Serbia will continue insisting on a U.N. mandate for the investigation into allegations of human organ trafficking in Kosovo and added that consensus needed to be reached on which form that investigation would take.

Jeremic said that some countries at last week's U.N. Security Council meeting on Kosovo had expressed their reservation toward Serbia's initiative that the Security Council form an ad hoc investigative mechanism which would examine the allegations contained in Council of Europe Rapporteur Dick Marty's report.

"Some countries said they had reservations about an investigation that would have a direct U.N. mandate. We will continue to insist on a U.N. mandate, primarily because all crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia have to date been investigated with a U.N. mandate, with the explicit requirement that results from those investigations are made known to the Security Council," said Jeremic.

Addressing reporters in the Palace of Serbia, Jeremic said that it was necessary to reach consensus on an appropriate form of investigation which would provide full credibility, because some Security Council member countries had the right of veto.