(Adds Russian quote paragraph 4, Kosovo president paragraph 15)

By Matt Robinson

BELGRADE, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russia insisted on Monday the U.N. Security Council should have the final word on Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province, putting it on a collision course with the West days before mediators report to the United Nations.

Moscow's Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, visiting Belgrade with fellow envoys from the EU and United States after the failure of talks last week, said the four-month dialogue had been the most serious since the 1998-99 war, and should continue.

"The Security Council began considering this question and this question will be finally resolved in the Security Council," the diplomat told a news conference.

He said later in Kosovo that there was "room for continued negotiation", something the West says would be pointless. Russia, which holds a veto in the U.N. Security Council, has already blocked one Western-backed independence plan.

American mediator Frank Wisner said it would be up to individual governments to decide how to proceed after the mediators' report is submitted to the United Nations by Dec 10.

"It is a matter for governments to take over and carry forward thereafter," he said. "Our positions as national governments have been articulated elsewhere. There are no surprises there."

Washington and almost all EU member states support Kosovo's independence from Serbia as the best option for stability in the Balkans and leaders of Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority say they will declare it within months.

The mediators will submit their report to the United Nations by next Monday, after failing at talks last week to bridge the gap between Serbia's offer of broad autonomy and the Kosovo Albanian independence demand.

NO "HASTY DECISIONS"

"This report will conclude that the two sides have not been able to reach agreement," said EU mediator Wolfgang Ischinger. It would not prescribe a solution, or a way forward. "We are not making any proposals that could surprise anyone."

Kosovo has been under U.N. rule since 1999, when NATO bombs expelled Serb forces accused of the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians while battling separatist rebels. Almost 18 months of negotiations, led first by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, have failed to produce compromise.

Ischinger told the Serb daily Blic that a unilateral declaration of independence was one possible scenario.

"I believe this will be coordinated as much as possible with the EU, U.S. and others," he said. "One thing is certain: the status quo is unsustainable and a decision is needed."

The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the report on Dec. 19.

"This is the end of the process," Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said after meeting the envoys in Pristina. "Very soon we will take steps in coordination with our partners."

Serb Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Serbia had time "to convince certain Council members it is better to continue talks than take unilateral steps that would destabilise the region".

In Tirana, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi urged Kosovo not to rush to any "hasty decisions" that might undermine the unity of the 27-member EU, which is due to take over supervision of the territory from the United Nations.

"This big operation will be irreparably ruined if there were hasty gestures on December 10," he said. Diplomats say a declaration is unlikely before mid-January. (Additional reporting by Paul Carrel, Benet Koleka, Ivana Sekularac and Shaban Buza; Editing by Caroline Drees)

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