"Regardless of how exactly this process will end ... it is clear no one will be able to say that this was not a meaningful and intense and working negotiating process," he added.
CHALLENGE FOR EUROPE
Serbia has offered broad autonomy, but the Kosovo Albanians say they will accept nothing less than independence. Western diplomats are concerned that Serbia and Russia will declare the mediation process a sham after it finishes.
Hajredin Kuci, deputy leader of Thaci's PDK party, qualified Thaci's statement after weekend parliamentary elections about an "immediate" declaration after December 10.
"The PDK and its leader Hashim Thaci stick strongly to the stand that the declaration of Kosovo's independence after December 10 would only happen in full coordination with the United States and European Union," Kuci told Reuters on Monday.
The EU is anxious to avoid a repeat of its dilemma in the 1990s, when internal splits over how to deal with the Balkans wars showed its ineffectiveness as a foreign policy player.
"This is a European challenge. It is not one we can ask the United States to solve for us," said Murphy.
Several states neighbouring the Balkans plus Germany and Spain are most hesitant to back a unilateral declaration.
Diplomats say Madrid and Berlin can be brought round if it is clear that all attempts to reach a compromise between Serbia and Kosovo's 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority have been made.
With results from 90 percent of polling stations counted, independent election monitors said Thaci's Democratic Party (PDK) had come first with 34 percent, pushing the ruling Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) into second place.
