BELGRADE, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Serbian President Boris Tadic is asking UN member nations to support a move to seek the International Court of Justice's opinion on Kosovo's independence, his office said Thursday.

'Serbia will submit a draft resolution at the forthcoming 63rd UN General Assembly,' which gets underway in New York next week, Tadic wrote in a letter to all UN members, according to a statement received in Belgrade.

The draft demands that 'the International Court of Justice (ICJ), provides an advisory opinion ... on whether the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo is in accordance with international law.'

'On behalf of the Republic of Serbia, I would like to ask for the support of your country to put this (Kosovo) issue' on the General Assembly agenda.

Serbia last month submitted a request before the United Nations for an advisory ruling by the ICJ on Kosovo's independence, saying the approach could serve as a model to settle other similar disputes.

Based in The Hague, the ICJ -- part of the United Nations -- rules on disputes between sovereign states.

Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo, a UN-administered province of Serbia since 1999 when it was wrested from Belgrade's control in a NATO air war, unilaterally seceded from Belgrade on February 17.

Its statehood has been recognised by 46 countries, including the United States and most European Union nations.

Serbia -- as well as Russia, its main ally on the world stage -- reject Kosovo's independence as an illegal breach of its territorial integrity.