Bush, who was speaking during his visit to Tanzania, said that the Kosovo status issue has to be solved, "so that the Balkans region remains stable".

The U.S. president also expressed his satisfaction with the ethnic Albanian authorities' declared readiness to support the right of the Serbs in Kosovo.

"The U.S. will continue to cooperate with her allies to make sure there is no violence," Bush told reporters in Dar es Salaam.

However, he would not directly confirm that a recognition of Kosovo as an independent state will be a part of the foreign policy legacy of his administration.

Instead, the U.S. president said that his country has offered strong support for the Ahtisaari plan envisaging Kosovo's supervised independence, rejected at the UN last spring.

Washington and some major EU countries are expected to recognize the Kosovo Albanians' unilateral secession.

Bush added that he believes it is "in Serbia's interest to follow Europe". He went on to say that "the Serbian people can be sure they have a friend in the United States".