(Corrects spelling of dateline)

By Ian Simpson

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Italy urged its European Union partners on Monday to reach out to Serbia in a bid to resolve diplomatic deadlock over its breakaway province of Kosovo.

"We can't think about resolving the problem without Serbia having a role in Europe," Prime Minister Romano Prodi told a news conference in Slovenia after talks with his counterpart, Janez Jansa.

"I've sent a letter to the EU Commission, a letter which underscores the political and economic aspects." Prodi gave no details but diplomats say Italy is proposing that Serbia be given a fast track to EU membership.

While officially ready to supervise Kosovo's independence, the EU seems increasingly divided over whether it can recognise Kosovo as an independent state in the face of Serbia's total resistance and without a United Nations resolution.

Serbia is engaged in a diplomatic offensive with the backing of Russia to block a Western-supported proposal that would give Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian population independence this year, after eight years under United Nations administration.

Moscow blocked a U.N. resolution based on this plan and insisted on further talks, which started last month with very slim prospects of compromise. They are due to end on Dec. 10.

"The problem that has to be confronted in the coming months is a very tough problem, very complicated," Prodi said. "European solidarity must be expressed with intelligence."

"We must show that Serbia is not alone." He said his proposal included economic incentives.

SERB FOCUS ON WASHINGTON

Enjoying Kremlin backing, Serbia hopes to sow doubt among the EU's 27 members, some of whom are wary of setting a bad precedent that may open the floodgates to separatist demands among their own minorities.

Serbia criticised The United States at the weekend for saying it would recognise Kosovo with or without a U.N. resolution. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called this "an open threat" to force independence through illegally.

EU strategy on Kosovo was due to come up in talks on Monday between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany's influential Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the EU had the power to prevent "a catastrophe", not by offering further inducements but by threatening "no more money".

EU diplomats say there is a serious obstacle to any fast track to membership for Serbia, even if it did agree to a "soft no" on Kosovo rather than a diplomatic fight to the finish.

"Prodi's letter has our complete support," said Slovenia's Jansa. "Serbia must, however, respect the conditions of full collaboration with the Hague tribunal."

The EU has made clear to Belgrade that it cannot advance on the road to membership as long as fugitive war crimes suspect General Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb wartime commander wanted for genocide, is still a free man.

EU Englargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said Serbia will conclude a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) -- the first step to membership -- only when it arrests Mladic.

"The commissioner's position is very clear," said Rehn's spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy. "In order to conclude the SAA... Serbia must fully cooperate with the court in the Hague."

(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Brussels)

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