NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday that the 16,000-strong NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) will stay in the volatile Serbian province to maintain peace and stability.
"The KFOR is there to stay," de Hoop Scheffer told media at a New Year reception at the NATO headquarters.
"The troops are on the ground. If necessary, reserves are ready," the alliance's chief said. "Let nobody have the illusion that by violence or other negative means he or she could have his or her way."
Scheffer expressed his disapproval of the fact that a negotiated solution to the future status of Kosovo is remote.
Consultations within the United Nations Security Council on the issue failed to reach any conclusions in late December last year.
Russia said there is still room for negotiations between Belgrade and the Kosovo authorities. But the European Union and the United States insisted that the potential for a negotiated solution was exhausted.
The latest political developments in Kosovo are cause for concern, as the ethnic Albanian ex-guerrilla Hashim Thaci, who was elected as the new prime minister of Kosovo on Wednesday, vowed to declare independence from Serbia within weeks.
"Kosovo's independence is a done deal. We just need to declare it," Thaci said after his coalition government was endorsed by parliament.
Kosovo has been run by a UN administration since NATO bombing drove Serbian forces out of the ethnic Albanian-dominated province in 1999.
Following failed talks between Belgrade and Pristina on the future status of the province, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders have pledged to unilaterally declare independence in early 2008. But the move is unlikely before Jan. 20, the date for presidential elections in Serbia.
The United States and a number of European countries are expected to recognize Kosovo's independence, but Serbia and its ally Russia said they would oppose any such move.
Source:Xinhua
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