In its draft resolution on Kosovo, the European Parliament (EP) rules out any possible partition of the Serbian southern province, recalling all previous such documents of that body which also dismissed such an outcome.

The EP will discuss a report on Kosovo's European integration at a session of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Brussels on Tuesday. The report was drafted by Ulrike Lunacek, European Green Party co-spokesperson.

According to Lunacek's report, which Pristina's daily Koha Ditore has seen, the European parliament views Kosovo as an independent state. The European Council and the European Commission are still neutral in terms of Kosovo's status.

The draft report is rather critical about Kosovo, and points to a number of irregularities at elections and lack of punishment, Koha Ditore reports. In criticising Kosovo, the document uses terms such as manipulations and serious irregularities, rather than discrepancies, a word often used by some other international officials.

The criticism has been taken seriously, given that the European Parliament was the only European institution that had its observers in the terrain when the irregularities were recorded.

The EP draft resolution calls for an immediate start of the dialogue on visa relaxation for Pristina, and qualifies the EU strategy on Kosovo's European perspective as a failure.

Fitou: Partition of Kosovo is bad idea

A partition of Kosovo would be a very bad and difficult idea to implement, but the local communities have the right to develop their own identities, lives and specific needs, French Ambassador in Pristina Jean-Francois Fitou has said.

However, if we are dealing with possible options for the Kosovo north, I think it is important to hear what the people there have to say, instead of talking about the north as it were located somewhere on the moon, Fitou said in his comment on the possibility of a referendum on declaring independence of northern Kosovo.

It is the local people who should be talked to, and we should hear what they think, what they are afraid of and what they are hoping for, Fitou added.

Fitou told the Frankfurt-based Serbian language daily Vesti that he frequently visited the Kosovo north to talk with the locals and learn about their fears.

He said that his country's position regarding Kosovo had not changed, as France had recognized the independence and sovereignty of Kosovo, and therefore believed a partition was not an option.