Agence France-Presse,
BRUSSELS: NATO has reached a consensus to keep its 17,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo at current levels whatever the province's future status, Belgium's foreign minister and a senior US diplomat said Thursday.
US and European diplomats added that NATO and EU foreign ministers reached the consensus at a dinner here Thursday and have drafted a communique that the ministers have agreed to support on Friday.
With a looming negotiating deadline of December 10, the Albanian-majority province of Kosovo appears to be moving toward declaring independence from Serbia after the failure of talks last week to resolve Kosovo's future.
“There is a consensus that NATO should stay with the current levels,” Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht told reporters.
A senior US State Department official issued much the same message to reporters in Brussels.
“There will be a strong decision of the alliance tomorrow to keep KFOR (the NATO Kosovo Force) at its current levels,” said the diplomat who asked not to be named.
The senior US diplomat added that NATO commanders would retain “full flexibility” to deal with whatever crisis emerges.
Since NATO deployed to Kosovo in 1999 as part of a campaign to reverse a Serb offensive against Kosovo Albanians, commanders have sometimes been slow to respond to riots because of limits or caveats imposed on their response.
The officials said this would not be the case when NATO foreign ministers meet Friday. “NATO took care to remove caveats,” the senior US official said. “It will be a far more capable force.”
The Belgian foreign minister added: “NATO Secretary General (Jaap de Hoop Scheffer) made clear that if needed additional troops would be made available.”
The moves were not a complete surprise.
Martin Erdmann, head of NATO political affairs and security policy, said earlier: “We expect foreign ministers to reassure NATO's presence, with almost 17,000 troops in Kosovo, in order to assure stability and peaceful development.”
Officials and experts generally agree that Kosovo is likely to move toward independence next month.
Russia's threat to veto that at the UN Security Council has forced NATO and European Union nations to go it alone, but this has raised questions about whether the UN resolution that deployed KFOR would remain valid.
Security Council resolution 1244 was passed in 1999 after NATO's forces bombed Belgrade to stop a Serbian crackdown on separatists in the ethnic Albanian dominated province.
It tasked KFOR with maintaining security and provided for the UN mission that has run Kosovo ever since; an administration the EU has made plans to replace in coming months to ease the transition to self-rule.
Kosovo is seeking independence while Belgrade is willing to grant its southern province no more than autonomy.
Last week, 11th-hour talks to resolve Kosovo's future mediated by the so-called troika of EU, Russian and US mediators failed to move Pristina and Belgrade closer together ahead of a December 10 deadline for negotiations to succeed.
Past that deadline, Pristina has threatened to unilaterally proclaim independence.
