Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said yesterday he had been charged with war crimes by the UN tribunal and had resigned to face trial, the highest-ranking ethnic Albanian to be indicted.

The 36-year-old former regional commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the 1998-99 war against Serb forces confirmed long-rumoured reports that he had been indicted and said he would report today to the court in The Hague.

The United Nations, Nato and the European Union welcomed his decision to go voluntarily and urged calm in the majority Albanian province, which was rocked by anti-Serb riots one year ago.

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