UK Troops Ready for Kosovo Crisis

Britain yesterday offered to be the first Nato country to send extra troops to Kosovo within weeks, as the Conservatives and Balkan experts warned of a potentially violent crisis brewing.

While David Cameron accused the Kremlin of stirring up trouble in the Balkans and warned of a new crisis by Christmas, Gordon Brown's government also risked Russian wrath by issuing a robust statement of support for quick Kosovan independence.

Lord Ashdown, the former international governor of Bosnia, accused the Russians and the Serbian government of fomenting trouble in Bosnia and Kosovo, and demanded troops reinforcements to try to keep the peace. "Unless we get a grip on this situation very fast, the issue of the Balkans will be back on our agenda with a vengeance," Ashdown told the BBC.

Amid a growing sense of foreboding after the collapse of two years of negotiations between the Serb and Kosovo Albanian leaderships over the future of the contested Balkan province, the Foreign Office signaled strong support for a breakaway Kosovo.

"Long-term European stability and security demand a viable status settlement for Kosovo without delay," a spokesman said, voicing support for the supervised independence proposed by the UN envoy, Martti Ahtisaari. If more peace keepers were needed in Kosovo, Britain would be the first to send extra forces, he said.

In one of his first big foreign policy speeches in Washington last night, Cameron called for extra troops immediately to pre-empt violence. "There could be a new crisis in the Balkans by Christmas ... That is a direct threat to our national security, and we must take decisive action now to prevent it," he said.

British diplomats indicated that any call for extra troops should first come from Nato commanders on the ground.