Political Director of the Austrian Foreign Ministry Stefan Lehne denied on Monday reports of Kosovo's press about his appointment as the new EU envoy to Kosovo.

The Pristina-based daily Express reported Monday that High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton was likely to propose Lehne as EU's new envoy in Pristina.

So far, the duty in Kosovo was conducted by Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, whose mandate expires on April 30. In a statement he gave the Austrian news agency APA on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Lehne said that there were no plans in that direction.

The Austrian diplomat was a special envoy of the former European foreign policy leader Javier Solana for the talks on Kosovo in 2006 and 2007. Solana's firefighter in the Balkans, as Lehne was referred to in Austria in March 2001, was first noticed when he managed to mediate in the issue regarding the rebellion of ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia.

One year later, Lehne helped in resolving the dispute between Belgrade and Podgorica about the Constitution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.