By Matt Robinson

VIENNA, March 2 (Reuters) - U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari on Friday invited Serbian and ethnic Albanian leaders to last-chance talks on Kosovo independence but conceded that after consultations in Vienna the two sides remained poles apart.

"I have to be honest in saying that on the principle issue of status the parties remain diametrically opposed in their views," the former Finnish president told reporters at the end of eight days of mid-level Serb-Albanians talks.

He said he had sent invitations for the presidents and prime ministers of both sides to attend a final meeting on March 10, before he forwards his plan for the independence of Serbia's cherished southern province to the U.N. Security Council.

"At this juncture it will be the last," he said of the March 10 meeting. Friday's talks lasted just two hours. Ahtisaari said he "might" make a few adjustments to the plan.

It was a predictable end to clause-by-clause talks on the plan between representatives of Serbia and Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority, a continuation of months of fruitless discussions in 2006 mediated by Ahtisaari.

He unveiled the blueprint on Feb 2, essentially offering the U.N.-run province a path to independence under the supervision of the European Union, eight years since NATO want to war to halt Serb atrocities in a two-year war with Albanian guerrillas.

Western powers see no alternative, but Russia continues to at least publicly back Serbia, which says the amputation of its medieval heartland would violate international law.

THREE SIDES

Serbian negotiator Slobodan Samaradzic said Serbia had presented a raft of amendments to the plan but there had been no agreement with the Albanians. "An agreement should not be signed until all three sides agree," he said, in reference to Serbia, Kosovo and the United Nations.

It is a stance U.N. veto holder Russia continues to support. Serbia is banking on Russia using its veto when the U.N. Security Council discusses the proposal, likely by the summer.

The West fears a veto would plunge Kosovo into chaos, a concern underscored last month by violent protests by Albanians impatient for independence and angry at the plan's provisions for a powerful European overseer and Serb self-government.

A fresh demonstration is due on Saturday.

Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, in a televised address on Thursday, appealed to Kosovars to stay away, saying a repeat of clashes between protesters and police on Feb 10, in which two people died, would damage Kosovo's cause.

The process has already been delayed twice since November by Western powers concerned to limit the fallout in Serbia, which begins talks on Friday on forming a new government.

But NATO allies heading a 16,500-strong peace force fear any significant delay now would only trigger unrest.

The Kosovo daily Koha Ditore reported on Friday that Ahtisaari would submit his plan to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on March 15 and address the Security Council in late April.

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