Macedonia's Branko Crvenkovski said his country as a European Union and NATO candidate has obligations to follow the common foreign policy in both blocs, and consensus there appears to be absent as yet.

He was visiting Brussels Tuesday when he added there are "other factors too", BIRN reported.

“One of them is that in defining our position towards the independence of Kosovo, we are obliged to take into account our national and state interests,” Crvenkovski said, adding “Macedonia will reveal its view when we find it is most appropriate for Macedonian interests."

Montenegro's Filip Vujanović emphasized that while deciding about Kosovo, Montenegrins should take into account the stability of the country, and relations between ethnic Serbs and Albanians living in Montenegro, and maintaining the multicultural and multi-religious atmosphere in the country.

“There will be no hasty decisions but we will think about it very carefully, and we will announce our decision on Kosovo at the moment when Montenegro evaluates that is appropriate,” Vujanović said.

Both presidents were visiting the European Commission, where the EU's enlragement commissioner "appealed to member states" to recognized Kosovo's unilaterally declared independence, BIRN says.

“Now, more than dozen EU member states have recognized the independence of Kosovo and we would expect that maturity of other member states will lead them to follow suite at their own pace,” Olli Rehn said.

Serbia rejects the Kosovo Albanians' declaration, and its recognitions, as illegal.