PRISTINA - Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku on Monday appealed to the international community to quickly settle the province`s status following Serbia`s weekend general elections.
"The independence of Kosovo is a reality, so we demand recognition of Kosovo`s international subjectivity without any delays," said Ceku.
"There is no one single reason more to keep Kosovo as a hostage of Serbia ... Kosovo has to be allowed, encouraged and supported on its road to development and European integration," said the ethnic Albanian leader.
The province has been run by a UN mission since mid-1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces repressing ethnic Albanian civilians in a fight against armed separatists.
UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari is scheduled to present plans later this week on the future status of Kosovo, whose 90-percent ethnic Albanian population are impatient for independence.
Ahtisaari is widely expected to grant them a form of independence, despite opposition from Belgrade and most Serbs who consider the southern territory as the cradle of their history, culture and religion.
The Finnish diplomat decided to postpone his announcement from late last year until after Serbia`s general elections for fear it would rouse nationalist sentiment during the poll.
The cabinet of the Kosovo Albanian premier said in a statement that it expected the status process to continue with its agenda in spite of the Serbian elections.
"The Kosovo government declares that the elections in Serbia were an internal democratic process and they had nothing to do with Kosovo," it said.
The Radicals won the most support in Serbia`s elections on Sunday but fell well short of securing an outright majority needed to form a government.
Serbia`s pro-European Democratic Party (DS) is now likely to join forces with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) led by outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, a staunch opponent of Kosovo`s independence.
Some analysts in Belgrade believe Kostunica could use the talks on forming a coalition government to cause further delays to the Kosovo status process.
01/22/2007 14:48 GMT