The United States continues to support Serbia's democratic path and its efforts to join the European Union, representative and former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Serbian parliament Speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic who is visiting the U.S.

Dejanovic stressed the U.S. needs to use its influence to help the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, which must resume, and reiterated Serbia will not recognize Kosovo's independence, her office said in a release. The parliament speaker also said Serbia expects the U.S. to support its EU accession and invited Pelosi to visit Belgrade.

The release described their talk as substantive and says Pelosi also conveyed her personal positive impressions of Serbia's progress. She said Dejanovic's visit to the U.S. Congress coincided with an important moment for Serbia, making it even more significant.

Dejanovic expressed gratitude to the U.S. government for its support on Serbia's road to the EU and pointed out future cooperation between the Serbian parliament and the U.S. Congress will be important for furthering bilateral relations, noting that women parliamentarians are "a resource to be counted on."

Dejanovic also met with Deputy Director of the Department of State's Office of Global Women's Issues Anita Botti, who supported the idea behind the Women's Leadership Network project. Botti stressed the importance of greater involvement of women in politics, corporate business and domestic violence reduction, and Dejanovic thanked the U.S. government for its support to the project.

She said women are a resource to be counted on and noted the current convocation of the Serbian parliament has passed gender equality and anti-discrimination laws and amended the law on the election of representatives, reads the release. MPs Jelena Trivan, Donka Banovic and Natasa Vuckovic also attended the meeting with Botti, according to the release.