Ex-guerrilla vows to make Kosovo independent

KOSOVO'S parliament last night endorsed a coalition government headed by Hashim Thaci, a former guerrilla, on a promise to lead the Albanian majority province to independence from Serbia this year.

The 120-seat assembly voted 85-22 to approve the "grand coalition" of Mr Thaci's Democratic Party and the Democratic League of Kosovo, the territory's two dominant parties after a November election.

Mr Thaci, led a 1998-99 guerrilla insurgency to end a decade of Serb repression under the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

He said that Kosovo would declare independence with western backing within weeks or months, after talks with Serbia ended in December in deadlock.

Kosovo's two million ethnic Albanians are counting on the West to overrule opposition from Serbia and Russia and recognise Kosovo as the last state to be carved from the former Yugoslavia. Mr Thaci, 39, told a packed assembly: "We are preparing to make Kosovo an independent and sovereign state early this year. We will turn our dream, and our right, into a reality."

Western diplomats hope the coalition will steer Kosovo through what is set to be a turbulent transition to statehood after Russia blocked its secession at the United Nations Security Council.

The United States and most of the 27 European Union members are expected to recognise a unilateral declaration of independence.