New York Times wrote:
The eight-hour stop — Mr. Bush left Rome in the morning and was headed to Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday night — made him the first sitting American president to visit this former Communist state. He told the Albanians what they wanted to hear — that he supported their effort to join NATO and wanted independence soon for Kosovo, a largely ethnic Albanian breakaway province of Serbia — without making any fresh commitments.
"At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you’ve got to say, 'Enough is enough — Kosovo is independent,' " Mr. Bush said. He said any plan to extend talks on Kosovo, like the one proposed recently by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, must end with "certain independence."
The future of Kosovo is of paramount interest here; some Kosovo residents traveled to Tirana to join the crowd. The United Nations Security Council is considering a plan for independence, but Russia objects. On Saturday in Rome, the president agreed that there should be a deadline to end the United Nations talks, saying: "In terms of a deadline, there needs to be one. It needs to happen."
But on Sunday, Mr. Bush tried to backtrack when asked when that deadline might be. "First of all, I don’t think I called for a deadline," Mr. Bush said, during a press appearance with Mr. Berisha in the courtyard of a government ministry building. He was reminded that he had.
"I did?" he asked, sounding surprised. "What exactly did I say? I said deadline? O.K., yes, then I meant what I said."
"At some point in time, sooner rather than later, you’ve got to say, 'Enough is enough — Kosovo is independent,' " Mr. Bush said. He said any plan to extend talks on Kosovo, like the one proposed recently by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, must end with "certain independence."
The future of Kosovo is of paramount interest here; some Kosovo residents traveled to Tirana to join the crowd. The United Nations Security Council is considering a plan for independence, but Russia objects. On Saturday in Rome, the president agreed that there should be a deadline to end the United Nations talks, saying: "In terms of a deadline, there needs to be one. It needs to happen."
But on Sunday, Mr. Bush tried to backtrack when asked when that deadline might be. "First of all, I don’t think I called for a deadline," Mr. Bush said, during a press appearance with Mr. Berisha in the courtyard of a government ministry building. He was reminded that he had.
"I did?" he asked, sounding surprised. "What exactly did I say? I said deadline? O.K., yes, then I meant what I said."
