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Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority are returning to Vienna for fresh talks on the fate of the breakaway Serbian province, forced by Russia's opposition to a Western plan for independence.
There is not a glimmer of breakthrough in sight.
Kosovo Albanians demanding independence after eight years under UN rule, and Serbs insisting they can never have it, are dug in too deeply on opposite sides of the issue.
Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, arriving in the Austrian capital, said there was little to talk about.
"Status has been discussed and a proposal was made that had general support, except from Russia and Serbia," he told reporters. "For us, the matter is settled and we shouldn't waste time talking about things which cannot be agreed upon."
Serbs and Albanians talked past each other for 13 months until March this year, when UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari called a halt. He said agreement was impossible and proposed independence under the supervision of the European Union.
But Russia said his plan was a non-starter, and blocked its adoption at the UN Security Council. The West has reluctantly agreed to new talks, which it hopes to wrap up by December 10 when a mediating "troika" of Russia, United States and European Union reports back to the United Nations.
Russia, however, rejects the December deadline.
The Serbia of late hardliner Slobodan Milosevic made Kosovo's large Albanian majority a fearful underclass in the 1990s. But they took up arms, provoking a brutal crackdown, and drew NATO in on their side in 1999 to grasp victory.
Kosovo has been occupied by NATO ever since, now with 16,000 soldiers from 35 nations. Serbia says granting independence would violate international law. The Albanians say they will not be part of a country that tried to wipe them out.
The Serbs and Albanians will meet separately with the envoys, in what is billed as a warm-up to the expected main event - a make-or-break conference in October or November.
The omens are inauspicious. The Serbs say this week's encounter is only "a consultative meeting", ahead of the real negotiations which will "begin at some point".
The Kosovo Albanians are represented by Ceku and President Fatmir Sejdiu. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and President Boris Tadic have opted to stay at home.
Ceku said the process had entered the final phase. After December 10, he said on his departure from Pristina, "we will try to coordinate the declaration of independence and we will move toward recognition" regardless of a UN resolution.
Such a move would almost certainly split the 27-member EU, which is struggling to hold a united line on Kosovo. A few EU members oppose independence for their own reasons, preferring a "frozen conflict" solution - which analysts say is illusory.
Some diplomats forecast mounting unrest in Kosovo.
