Kosovans Rally to Demand Independence From Serbia

About 3,000 Kosovans took part in a pro-independence rally in the capital, Pristina, today as their government vowed to break away permanently from Serbia early next year.

The demonstration came as today's deadline for a negotiated deal on the fate of the breakaway province passed without result, and as EU foreign ministers met to discuss increasing tension over Kosovo.

Waving US and Albanian flags and carrying posters that read "Independence is the only option", the demonstrators, predominantly students, marched towards the parliament building.

"No more delays. No more deals," a student leader, Burim Balaj, told the crowd, urging the international community to recognize Kosovo when it declares independence.

Kosovo is widely expected to declare independence early next year, but has so far vowed not to do so without US and European Union approval.

However, a government spokesman, Skender Hyseni, said today that a declaration was "not an issue of if, but when".

It had been expected that Albanian leaders would wait until after Serbian elections, due on January 20, to try to avoid boosting support for ultra nationalist candidates.

But Hyseni said Kosovo "is only going to follow its own road map" and would not be pressured into putting off a declaration solely because of the Serbian ballot.

Kosovo's outgoing prime minister, Agim Ceku, meanwhile urged the EU to bring the province's eight-year quest for independence to a quick conclusion.

Speaking as the foreign ministers of EU countries met in Brussels to discuss the crisis, Ceku said Kosovo was committed to the rights of minority Serbians, democracy and international supervision of independence.

Although the province formally remains part of Serbia, it has been run by the UN and Nato since 1999, when Nato bombing ended Serbian attacks on Albanian separatists.

Serbia has offered Kosovo broad autonomy but insists it remain part of Serbian territory. Russia has threatened to block its drive for independence at the UN security council.

"Serbia has a choice: going into the future together with us, or going back to the past alone. We hope that they will make the right choice," said Ceku.

Later today, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, is due to open a branch office on the Serb side of the ethnically divided northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica, long a flashpoint for violence between the province's ethnic Albanian majority and its minority Serbs.

The opening of a Serbian government office inside Kosovo is seen as a clear territorial claim by Belgrade, which claims Kosovo as the heart of the Serbs' ancient homeland.

Envoys from the EU, US and Russia, the so-called troika, reported to the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, last week that four months of internationally mediated talks had ended in stalemate.

The US and most EU countries have signaled they will recognize an independent Kosovo, but Cyprus has refused, fearing it would set a precedent by encouraging separatist movements elsewhere in Europe and worldwide.