Serbian Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said on Saturday that Kosovo is going to declare independence from Serbia very shortly, news reaching here from Skopje reported.

 

However Sejdiu, who is on a one-day visit to Macedonia, didn't give a date when the breakaway Serbian southern province would do so, saying "it will happen very soon".

 

Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski said his country, where minority Albanians account for a quarter of the tiny Balkan country's 2 million population, would not be the first country to recognize Kosovo's independence.

 

"Macedonia has no intention to be out of step with the decision of NATO and EU, and we will follow their common policy," Crvenkovski said after talks with Sejdiu.

 

Although Kosovo is formally within Serbia, the southern province has been run by the U.N. and NATO since 1999, when a NATO alliance launched an air war that ended Serbia's military campaign there.

 

Serbia insists Kosovo is an integral part of its territory and that it will never part with it, while Kosovo Albanians who account for 90 percent of the province's 2 million population claimed they will accept nothing short of independence.

 

A critical round of talks on the future status of Kosovo has ended in yet another stalemate. International mediators overseeing the talks are due to report to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon by Dec. 10.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2007)