Serbia is seeking a compromise that will allow Kosovo to join Balkan regional initiatives without Belgrade recognising its former southern province, the country's foreign minister said on Monday.

"We want to work together with France and Europe on a solution that will enable European integration of the entire Western Balkans," Vuk Jeremic said after meeting his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner in Belgrade.

Serbia applied to join the European Union last December and hopes to start membership talks this year after a delay over its failure to arrest war crimes fugitives.

The EU also wants Belgrade to improve ties with Kosovo, its former ethnic-Albanian dominated southern province which seceded in 2008 following war in 1999.

"There are no conditions that would tie recognition of Kosovo's independence with Serbia's EU bid ... but we are seeking a compromise," said Kouchner, who headed the then UN mission that administered Kosovo from 1999 till 2001.

So far Serbia has refused to participate in international meetings where Kosovo's delegation was not presented as UNMIK Kosovo, the acronym for the UN mission there.

Earlier this month, EU foreign policy and security chief Catherine Ashton urged Belgrade to improve practical ties with Pristina.

Sixty-five nations, including France, other key EU members and the United States have recognised Pristina, but Serbia, Russia, China and a majority of U.N. member states remain opposed, preventing Kosovo from joining the organisation.

Last year Serbia sought arbitration at the International Court of Justice on Kosovo's independence. A ruling is expected later this year.

The implementation of the key pre-membership Stabilisation and Association Agreement depends on the arrest of fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, who is sought for genocide by the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

Kouchner travels to Kosovo later on Monday to meet top officials there.

The office of Kosovo's president blamed Serbian hackers on Monday for breaking into their computer website and rewriting their front page to declare that Kosovo is part of Serbia.

The site was attacked on Sunday around midnight "by so-called Serb hackers," the president's office said in a statement.

Reuters