By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN, May 9 (Reuters) - The United States hopes the U.N. Security Council will vote this month on a resolution that will offer independence for Kosovo's 2 million ethnic Albanians, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The United States and Europeans have drawn up elements for a resolution that would lead to independence for Kosovo, while Russia has drafted its own ingredients for a resolution that says it is too soon for a decision on the status of Serbia's breakaway province, according to documents obtained by Reuters.

The key measure in the U.S.-European text is an endorsement of recommendations for Kosovo's future status as drawn up by U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari, which would give virtual independence to Kosovo under European Union auspices.

"We strongly support the Ahtisaari plan," U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters in Berlin ahead of meetings with his counterparts from the Group of Eight (G8). "We think there is now majority support in the Security Council for that plan, in fact very strong support."

"We will work very closely with Britain, France and Germany and the other countries to put forward a resolution in the coming days that will lead, we hope, to a vote this month and to the independence of Kosovo," he said.

He said the process of creating an independent Kosovo was "inevitable" though it was clearly a difficult issue for Serbia, which opposes Kosovo's independence, Burns said.

"We want to maintain good relations with Serbia. I think you'll see us pressing for the minority rights of Serbians (in Kosovo) in the resolution," he said.

UNCERTAINTY ABOUT RUSSIA

Burns said the United States and its allies were flexible and would amend their text to include Russian suggestions, such as Moscow's proposal to appoint an envoy to encourage Serbs in Kosovo to stay there and to urge Serbs who fled to return.

"That was a very attractive idea put forward by the Russians. We support it," Burns said. "We want to work with Russia. We are reaching out to the Russian government."

Russia, like the United States, Britain, France and China, is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the Security Council and has indicated it would not back the Ahtisaari plan as is.

A senior Western diplomat on the Security Council said in New York it was unclear if Moscow would accept some revisions or if it really intended to veto the U.S.-European text.

"The Russians are signalling that they are looking for a way out, but we're not in the endgame yet," the diplomat said.

It is important to move fast with the resolution so that countries can begin recognising Kosovo, Burns said.

"It's clear to us that a prolonged delay in seeing the way forward towards independence for Kosovo is more likely to produce instability and violence than a clear decision this spring," Burns said.

He also expressed concern about the election of a hardline nationalist, Tomislav Nikolic of the Serbian Radical Party, as speaker of the Serbian parliament, echoing earlier comments by European Union president Germany.

"We in the United States were very disappointed by the re-emergence of the radicals," he said. "This is the party of Milosevic. This is the party that took Serbia backwards in the 1990s and into destruction and into warfare, four wars."

He said Serbia had a choice -- it could either move backward into the 1990s or forward into a future which could hold memberships in both NATO and the EU for Belgrade. (Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations)

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