WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press Russia on Kosova when she visits Moscow next month, an official says.

Yesterday U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack downplayed the Kremlin's threat to veto the independence vote should it come up in the UN Security Council.

“It is well known that the Russian government has some real reservations about Ahtisaari's plan for supervised independence for Kosova,” McCormack said.

But he asserted that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov “had not actually threatened a Russian veto of the scheme”,  adding that “the United States and other Security Council powers were striving to take Moscow's concerns into account.”

As part of the initiative, Rice will have "extended discussions" on the issue with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a visit to the Russian capital in mid-May, he said.

Rice will travel to Moscow during a tour which will also take her to the Middle East for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he said, but no specific dates for the tour have been set.

The secretary will also see Lavrov Thursday in Oslo on the sidelines of a foreign ministers' meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, though it is unlikely they will have time for detailed bilateral talks then, McCormack said.

McCormack warned Tuesday that “delaying a resolution on the issue of Kosova's status could lead to instability.”

"The current situation is untenable and it needs to come to some resolution," he said.

"We are working to try to accommodate the concerns of the Russians and the Serbian government as well, but it's time to try to craft a solution that will be durable over time," he said.

"We as well as others in the Security Council are working to try to take their concerns into account," McCormack concluded.