Pristina, Serbia-Montenegro ? Independence is the only viable option for Kosovo, according to the special U.N. envoy who on Monday submitted a report and a proposal on the province’s future to the Security Council.

The Security Council will make the final decision on Kosovo following the proposal submitted by envoy Martti Ahtisaari, who mediated yearlong talks between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.

“Upon careful consideration of Kosovo’s recent history, the realities of Kosovo today, and taking into account negotiations with the parties, I have come to the conclusion that the only viable option for Kosovo is independence, to be supervised for an initial period by the international community,” Ahtisaari said in a 3 1/2-page introductory report that accompanied the proposal to the council, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of the official release.

The text of the report is the first time that Ahtisaari has explicitly mentioned independence in a document dealing with province’s future.

In his initial proposal, Ahtisaari did not use the word “independence,” but stated that he would make his position clear when the plan is submitted to the U.N. Security Council. That plan grants the province its own constitution, flag, anthem and army, as well as rights to minority Serbs to run their daily affairs.

Diplomats at U.N. headquarters in New York said the Security Council would likely have the first formal discussion on the report April 3.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. An estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians and 1,000 Serbs were killed during the 1998-1999 war.

The U.N. plan is an attempt to resolve the final major dispute remaining after Yugoslavia’s bloody 1990s breakup.

Stressing the urgency of the issue, Ahtisaari said that allowing the territory’s status to remain ambiguous was a destabilizing factor.

“Independence is the best safeguard against this risk,” he wrote. “It is also the best chance for a sustainable long-term partnership between Kosovo and Serbia.”