Nato said Friday it will stay the course in Kosovo amid renewed debate over its future status following the unveiling of a UN plan for the Serbian province.
After a meeting of Nato foreign ministers, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the allies voiced support for the United Nations envoy to Kosovo, whose plan calls for a democratic and multi-ethnic Kosovo. Scheffer said the meeting produced "reconfirmation by the allies that Nato-KFOR (Kosovo Force) will play its part through and beyond the status process."
He said the 26 member countries showed "full unity behind the process" undertaken by the United Nations, and a "shared commitment to the need for a resolution as quickly as possible."
Nato waged a bombing campaign against former strongman Slobodan Milosevic's regime in 1999 to stop a Serbian crackdown on the separatist ethnic Albanian majority in the southern Serbian province. Nato has pledged to around 17,000 troops in Kosovo. Fears have grown that any major delay in announcing how much autonomy Kosovo should be granted could inflame tensions and spill over into violence.
UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari is due to travel to Belgrade and Pristina next week to present the proposal to the Serbian and Kosovo sides, who will then discuss it further before a final plan eventually goes to the UN Security Council.
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