BELGRADE - Ethnic Albanian leaders in southern Serbia on Friday agreed to join a coordination body overseeing the troubled Presevo Valley area, the scene of fighting in 2001, Tanjug news agency reported.
In a joint statement, members of the Coordination Bureau for southern Serbia said they would "work jointly and in close cooperation to improve standards of living for all citizens in the region", Tanjug reported.
The signatories included bureau chief Nebojsa Covic, as well as local ethnic Albanian mayors Nagip Arifi and Riza Haljimi, and ethnic Albanian political leaders Jonaz Musliu and Skender Destani.
The accord was signed at the Belgrade office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in the presence of representatives of the European Union and the United States.
Albanian Democratic Party leader Ragmi Mustafa however refused to sign, in keeping with a boycott of Serbian institutions which most ethnic Albanians from the southern region have followed for several years.
Ethnic Albanians took up arms in the Presevo Valley in 2000 and 2001 to demand better rights for the minority community. The unrest eased after talks were brokered by the OSCE but ethnic tensions remain high.
03/04/2005 17:14 GMT