Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders will not declare independence unilaterally this year without the backing of the US and the European Union, says Agim Ceku, provisional prime minister in the United Nations protectorate.

"We won't make a unilateral declaration without US and European support to do this," Mr Ceku told the Financial Times at a regional security conference in Dubrovnik at the weekend.

But the EU must consider how to take over supervision of the new south-east European state in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution endorsing independence, he warned. "We need a roadmap that leads us quickly and clearly forward."

The US and Russia had "reached a stalemate" over Serbia's UN-administered breakaway province, forcing Kosovo's elected leaders to seek western-backed independence before the ethnic Albanian majority lost its "patience, confidence and trust" in the international community, Mr Ceku said.

He said Kosovo – from which Nato air power forced Yugoslav Serb forces to withdraw in 1999 – would accept EU-led supervision and continue working with the west to overcome the objections to its independence from Belgrade.

Belgrade's Security Council ally, Russia, has threatened use of its veto to block two UN draft resolutions based on the pro-independence status package unveiled in February by Maarti Ahtisaari, UN envoy for Kosovo.

Mr Ceku and western diplomats still see the Security Council as the preferred route. The US had "not yet given up" on it, said Daniel Fried, US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

Mr Freid expected Kosovo's status to be resolved "a number of months before the Bucharest summit" next April, when Nato is set to decide on whether to extend membership invitations to neighbouring Albania and Macedonia, along with Croatia. Ending Serbian sovereignty was non-negotiable, Mr Fried indicated.

"Supervised independence is the only way forward", ensuring protection for Kosovo Serbs and other minorities while removing the "greatest single barrier" to rapid economic and political improvements for all south-eastern Europe, he said.