Serbia and Kosovo were under pressure Tuesday to find common ground in the latest round of their EU-sponsored talks to ease longstanding tensions, described as the most difficult so far. As talks between the Serb and Kosovo premiers, and EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton dragged on into the evening, a Serbian official said they were being held in "a difficult and painful atmosphere. "As far as Serbia is concerned, this is not the final round, we are ready to negotiate until a solution is found," said Aleksandar Vulin, head of the Serbian government office for Kosovo.

By Matt Robinson and Fatos Bytyci MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters) - It's a dangerous job being a municipal clerk in the Kosovan town of Mitrovica, where the Ibar river forms a natural barrier between Serbs and Albanians. Since Adrijana Hodzic began issuing the identification cards of mainly Albanian Kosovo to Serbs on the north side of the river, her deputy has been shot in the leg and hand grenades lobbed at the homes of her staff.

Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci said Thursday after meeting visiting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that he was hopeful of reaching a deal with Serbia on resolving long-lasting disputes. "We are optimistic that things are moving in the right direction," Thaci told reporters following Ashton's visit to Pristina. "We are expecting an agreement on the general normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia."

* Serbia racing to clinch EU accession talks * Under pressure to regulate relations with Kosovo * PM says Serbia must define its "real borders" By Matt Robinson BELGRADE, March 7 (Reuters) - Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic told Serbs on Thursday they had been lied to that "Kosovo is ours", the latest sign of an historic U-turn by Belgrade as it races to clinch membership talks with the European Union.