UN urges Kosovo to form government quickly

Kosovo's UN governor urged the main Albanian parties to form a government quickly following Saturday's election, insisting that legal and human rights goals be met before independence is discussed.

"As soon as we have the results I expect the political parties to accept them and to get down to work," said Soren Jessen-Petersen, mindful of a three-month impasse after the last ballot in 2001.

"We don't have a lot of time if we want to move Kosovo forward," he said while visiting the main vote-counting centre yesterday.

The new parliament has eight months to meet a series of UN-set standards on law and order, security and human rights.

If it succeeds, the UN says it will finally broach the issue in mid-2005 of whether Kosovo, a province of Serbia, is to become independent or remain loosely linked to Belgrade.

Albanians say that link was severed for good five years ago. Their president, Ibrahim Rugova, said Kosovo had already "demonstrated it can run itself, and it is time for recognition of independence" - a call he makes regularly.

"I insist that Kosovo's independence be recognised and then standards will be easily fulfilled," he said, reversing the UN's "standards before status" mantra.

But Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the massive boycott of the election by Kosovo Serbs - which he advocated - showed how serious the situation was in Kosovo.

"By not voting Serbs sent a unanimous message that their living conditions are unbearable," he said. "To vote for political representatives people must first enjoy elementary rights."

Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since a 78-day NATO bombing campaign expelled Serb forces, to end what the West said was ruthless disregard for civilian life in fighting to crush an Albanian guerilla insurgency.

Projections showed Mr Rugova's party had again polled highest but would be unable to form a government on its own, pointing to another coalition of rival parties.

Western powers who intervened here in 1999 must soon decide whether granting the independence hopes they fostered will help or harm stability in the fragile Balkans.

An internal UN report following two days of Albanian riots in March against the Serb minority said any delay would risk fresh violence. Albanians account for 90-per cent of Kosovo's two million people. Serbs reject their independence.

In 2001, three months elapsed after the first parliamentary election under UN control before three rival parties were cajoled into an uneasy coalition.