Kosovo was heading for a likely grand coalition yesterday to lead the province into a final showdown with Serbia on the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence.

A senior official in Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party (PDK), which won Saturday's parliamentary election, told Reuters a coalition with the second-placed Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) was "most likely, since there's no other option".

The PDK and LDK have been rivals since Mr Thaci's guerilla fighters eclipsed the LDK's policy of passive resistance to Serb rule in the 1990s, under the guidance of the late independence leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

A second PDK source also said a PDK-LDK coalition was most likely, with the support of some smaller parties to secure a stable majority in the 120-seat Parliament.

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