Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci confirmed that the ethnic
Albanian-dominated Serb province will declare independence on
Sunday, the Serbian Beta news agency reported.
The leader of the
Democratic Party of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, who won Kosovo's
parliamentary elections last week, arrives at the European Council
headquarters ahead of a meeting in Brussels November 20,
2007.
Thaci made the statement on Saturday after a meeting with
religious leaders in provincial capital city of Pristina.
The Serbian government is expected to declare Kosovo
independence null and void as it violates Serbia's sovereignty and
territorial integrity.
It has also adopted a secret "Action Plan" to deal with the
situation in case Kosovo declares independence.
On the world arena, Serbia's traditional ally Russia has pledged
to oppose Kosovo's declaration of independence, while most European
Union countries and the United States have offered quick
recognition.
The EU agreed to send a 2,000-strong policing mission to Kosovo
on Friday night.
Kosovo was a southern autonomous province within Serbia before
the breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Among its
population of 2 million, over 90 percent are ethnic Albanians and
Serbs make up about 7 percent.
The independence-seeking province has been run by the UN mission
since 1999.
(Xinhua News Ageny February 17, 2008)
