Prime minister says Kosovo independence an "issue of days"

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Thursday that independence of his breakaway province from Serbia was "an issue of days."Earlier in the week, he had said that ethnic Albanian leaders and Western capitals had agreed on a date and that it would be revealed shortly."Kosovo is ready with everything to proclaim independence and it is an issue of days," Thaci told reporters after meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana.Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders had been expected to declare independence in February or March. Serbia strongly opposes independence for the province, and the issue has caused friction between the West and Serbian ally Russia-a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.Thaci ended two days of talks with EU and NATO officials about ethnic Albanians' plan to declare their southern Serbian province independent.In Kosovo, President Fatmir Sejdiu sounded the same message as he spoke to citizens in the ethnically mixed town of Lipljane, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Pristina, the province's capital."There are very few days left from the day that Kosovo's parliament will decide ... to declare the political will of the people to be independent," Sejdiu said.NATO has 16,000 peacekeepers in Kosovo and will send more troops to the tense north, where most of the minority Serbs live.Kosovo's independence is supported by the United States and most European Union members, including Britain and France. Some EU nations, however, have expressed misgivings about recognizing Kosovo's independence outside the framework of the United Nations.To mollify Belgrade, the EU is considering a quick signing of a pre-membership deal with Serbia. But EU officials have said the signing hinges on whether Serbia fully complies with bringing war criminals to the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/24/europe/EU-GEN-EU-Kosovo.php

As in the days of Noah....