(Updates with Tadic, Kostunica quotes)

By Douglas Hamilton

BELGRADE, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Serbia's parliament was set to adopt a resolution on Wednesday implicitly rejecting membership of the European Union and NATO if the West recognises the independence of Kosovo.

It had the backing of President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who lead the two main parties in Serbia's governing coalition, and was likely to win support from hardline nationalists of the opposition Radical Party as well.

"Serbia will never accept the independence of Kosovo," Tadic told parliament. Serbia would continue its diplomatic campaign at a U.N. Security Council session on Jan 9, he said.

Tadic, who is up for re-election in January, said that if NATO peacekeepers failed to protect Kosovo Serbs against violence "the Serbian Army is ready to help and protect (them), with the approval of all relevant international institutions and respecting international law.

Kostunica, who has been more combative and anti-Western in tone than his coalition partners, said the resolution was "our last line of defence".

"It would send a message to Serbs in Kosovo...that they should ignore any unilateral declaration of independence as an illegal act," he said.

Kosovo's 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority, backed by the United States and Western European countries, is preparing to declare Kosovo's independence in the first months of 2008.

Kosovo Serbs mostly live in a northern corner of the province, in effect partitioned already.

"Kosovo is big enough for Serbs and Albanians," the prime minister added. But "the main problem is that the United States is preventing the Albanians from compromising".

The resolution says "all international accords that Serbia will sign, including the SAA, must be in keeping with the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity".

The SAA is the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first treaty the EU signs with would-be members. The EU is offering Serbia a fast track to membership once Kosovo is resolved, but this resolution would bar its acceptance if the breakaway province secedes with Western backing.

OPEN TO INTERPRETATION

A senior political source said the wording was hammered out between Tadic and Kostunica to preserve their fragile coalition while Serbia holds a presidential election in January, likely to be followed by Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

He suggested that the EU was satisfied in advance that it did not in fact signify a change of course by Serbia. But analysts said the wording was also open to interpretation by more nationalist parties, who say its intent is clear.

Serbia is offering Kosovo's Albanian majority broad autonomy, a separate life short of full self-determination for its two million people and with no role in Serbia.

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999 after 11 weeks of bombing by NATO forced it to withdraw its troops, ending a ruthless counter-insurgency campaign in which 10,000 civilians were killed and 800,000 driven out of the country.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and patrolled by a major NATO-led peacekeeping force ever since. The EU is now preparing to take over the UN supervisory role, with a police and judicial mission, and NATO is staying on.

"Because of the overall role of NATO ... parliament decides that Serbia will declare military neutrality (from) military alliances, until a possible referendum," the resolution states.

"An EU mission in Kosovo ... would endanger the sovereignty, territorial integrity and constitutional order of Serbia" unless it has U.N. Security Council approval, it says.

But this is currently unattainable. Serbia's main ally, Russia, threatens to veto any resolution Serbia does not accept, thereby frustrating what the West sees as the only path to stability in the Balkans. (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac, editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)

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