Hungarian Foreign Minister Kinga Goncz said in Budapest on Monday chances are high that the European Union will take a joint position on the future of Kosovo before the region declares its independence, MTI news agency reported.

Goncz told a news conference that negotiations had been intense in December and expert level talks are currently under way. Reports indicate that EU will take a unified position on Kosovo's future, she added.

Hungary had a vested interest in a unified European position, she said. Stability in the region is crucial for Hungary, alongside a stable ethnic structure in northern Serbia's Vojvodina province, home to a large Hungarian community, Goncz added.

Goncz said Hungary maintained its suggestion that the EU should grant Serbian citizens visa-free status. She also announced that she was scheduled to meet her Serbian counterpart on Tuesday.

On another subject, Goncz said Hungarian-Slovak ties had continued to be problematic in 2007, mainly due to the extreme right and radically anti-Hungarian Slovak National Party's participation in the government coalition.

"The Slovak government must drop its double-talk and start a dialogue with Slovakia's ethnic Hungarian party," she added.