German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was due to visit Belgrade Thursday, February 23 and press Serbian authorities to move forward in talks with Kosovo and comply with terms the European Union laid out for it to become a membership candidate.

During Westerwelle's short stop in Belgrade, he is due to meet President Boris Tadic, the foreign ministry said in Berlin.

As M&C reported citing DPA, the visit comes amid wrangling within the EU over whether Serbia should be formally recognized as a membership candidate.

The EU postponed that decision from December to March, giving Serbia more time to make progress in talks with Kosovo. The talks, facilitated by the EU since March 2011, resumed Wednesday in Brussels after an interruption of several months.

The EU wants Serbia to begin normalizing relations with its mostly ethnically Albanian former province, which declared independence four years ago.