(Adds Serbs, edits throughout)

By Douglas Hamilton

VIENNA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - New talks to decide the future of Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo got under way on Thursday with a conciliatory tone from both sides, but no breakthrough on their fundamental disagreement over its independence.

Mediators who met Serb and Kosovo Albanian delegations separately at the Austrian foreign ministry said the initial talks were cordial and yielded an agreement from both sides to do nothing to derail negotiations over the next three months.

As expected, there was no breakthrough. The Albanians said Kosovo's independence would not be stopped, while the Serbs again said they were offering everything short of statehood.

Accentuating a positive note, European Union envoy Wolfgang Ischinger said both undertook "to make no acts or statements ... that might jeopardise the troika process or be provocative".

The 'troika' mediating the talks is made up of three envoys, from the EU, the United States and Russia. Ischinger said its mandate would end and the process would conclude on Dec. 10. Russia, however, has not accepted such a deadline.

Leaders of Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority said they were urging Serbia to accept independence and look forward, to a future of friendly relations between two sovereign states.

"We have the opportunity to lay the foundations for a mature, stable functioning relationship between independent neighbours," said Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku.

Serbia's Minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said Belgrade's counter-offer of autonomy would give Kosovo "more powers than it ever had in its history".

Diplomats see no sign of willingness on either side to bridge the gap and believe the talks -- forced by Russia and Serbia on a sceptical West -- may only buy time before Kosovo declares independence without United Nations approval.

"DELICATE PHASE"

Steeped in Serb history and legend, Kosovo has been beyond Belgrade's control since 1999 when NATO occupied the province after bombing Serbia for 11 weeks to force an end of its brutal suppression of an Albanian revolt.

It is home to two million Albanians and 100,000 Serbs.

No effort was made to resolve the status of the U.N.-run territory until early 2006. Serbs and Albanians then talked past each other until U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari said agreement was impossible and proposed independence under EU supervision.

Russia blocked his plan at the Security Council and insisted on re-starting negotiations without pre-conditions.

But diplomats say there is no more hope of a deal in the next three months than there was last year, and NATO allies with 16,000 troops on the ground fear any provocation by either side could quickly escalate into violence.

Serb Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said he was "pretty pleased" by the commitment to peace "during this very delicate phase". He told reporters the two sides would hold direct talks at the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month.

In Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Russia had helped Serbia pre-empt an independence resolution at the Security Council, but "the danger that Albanian separatists unilaterally proclaim independence has not been removed".

Major powers had to realise that "unilaterally proclaimed independence would be worthless", he said.

The United States has promised that Kosovo will be independent before long, and with U.S. recognition. But the 27-member EU is less than united in its support for statehood without a U.N. resolution.

The idea of partitioning the province has been floated informally as the only way out of the deadlock, but Ischinger said ethnic division was not an option.

"The question of partition ... has never been on the agenda of the troika, or raised by either party," he said. (Additional reporting by Matt Robinson, Ksenija Prodanovic and Ellie Tzortzi)

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