Ashton, for her part, said the EU is seeking forward movement on the issue and that she is encouraged about the stated commitment to talks by both Mr. Tadic and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.

"It's incredibly important in moving forward with Belgrade and Pristina that we are working together, and that is a message that we have said to President Tadic, Prime Minister Thaci, when I met with them last week, that we need to all engage in this process and to be, as we are, constructive in our dialogue to try and find the way forward, which, as you know, I believe for both, is a European future," she said.

Clinton will visit Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina in a Balkans trip beginning the week after next. She is also due to meet NATO officials in Brussels.

U.S. officials have been concerned about inter-ethnic political tensions in Bosnia-Herzegovina that could undermine the political peace that has prevailed there since the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended years of brutal warfare in the region.

Clinton and Ashton reviewed efforts by the United States and EU to sustain direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, threatened by Sunday's expiration of the 10-month Israeli freeze on most West Bank settlement activity.

Ashton said here she would depart for the region late Wednesday to join U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell in diplomatic trouble-shooting.

Ashton and Mitchell are expected to meet Thursday in Jerusalem.