Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci summoned parliament on Sunday to a special session that will declare the province's independence from Serbia, ending a long chapter in the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia.

"Kosovo citizens today await an independent, sovereign and democratic country, a state for all with equal rights," Thaci told Reuters shortly before leaving for the assembly in the capital, Pristina.

"Kosovo is the homeland of all its citizens," he said, in a gesture to minority Serbs who fear independence.

He said later he had called for the session "for the declaration of independence and for a vote on Kosovo's state symbols". It was scheduled to start at 3.00 p.m. Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has scheduled a televised address to the Serbian people.

"The Serbs vow never to give up the land where their history goes back 1,000 years. They will reject independence in defiance of the Albanians and their Western backers and will keep their grip on strongholds in northern Kosovo, making the ethnic partition of the new state a reality from the start."

Kosovo will be the 6th state carved from the Serb-dominated federation since 1991, after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro, and the last to escape Serbia's embrace.

President George W. Bush said the United States, which has 1,700 troops in Kosovo's NATO-led peacekeeping force of 16,000, would work with its allies to make sure there was no violence.

"The United States will continue to work with our allies to do the very best we can to make sure there's no violence," he said during a visit to Tanzania. Bush added that he was heartened by the Kosovo government's proclaimed willingness to support Serbian rights.

Thaci said on Saturday: "The success of Kosovo's independence as a new beginning will be clearly measured by respect for the rights of minorities, especially Serbs."

Snow blanketed the capital on Sunday morning after triumphant celebrations the night before, thousands of Albanians pouring into the streets, flags in every hand and car horns blaring. Banners proclaimed "Happy Independence".