BELGRADE (AFP)--Serbian President Boris Tadic has called for changes to a 1999 agreement that saw Serbian troops exit Kosovo and make way for NATO forces, in an interview published Saturday.
"There is no reason at this time, while Serbia has shown that it is a stabilizing factor in the region, not to modify the Kumanovo accord," signed on June 9, 1999, the daily Politika newspaper quoted Tadic as saying.
The accord ended the NATO bombing of Serbia, which was aimed at stopping Belgrade's crackdown on the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo, including rebels fighting for the province's independence.
It permitted NATO soldiers, known as the KFOR force, to be deployed in the southern Serbian province, while the United Nations took over the area's administration.
In February, Kosovo's Albanian leadership unilaterally declared independence - a move recognized by the U.S. and much of the European Union, but strongly opposed by Serbia and Russia, its chief ally on the world stage.
Serbia's army chief, General Zdravko Ponos, told the Beta news agency that he met in Naples with the commander of NATO forces in the region, Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, about revising the accord, which he said no longer reflected the situation on the ground.
Tadic noted in Saturday's interview, for example, that there was no longer any security reason to maintain the no-fly zone imposed by the accord.
He also again expressed Belgrade's opposition to the creation of a Kosovo security force and the effect it could have on the region.
"These are not forces that pose any danger for Serbia... but they could be the beginnings of an army which could become a risk to the stability of the region," Tadic said.
The Security Council this week endorsed a plan by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon paving the way for the European Union's rule of law mission to be fully operational by next month, ending months of a power vacuum in Kosovo.
Under the U.N. plan, the mission known as EULEX is to take over from the U.N.'s post-war mission, mentoring Kosovo's transition and controlling police, justice and customs while remaining neutral regarding its independence.
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=0JBT6WDJjl8kMJqat75yDA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2008 10:19 ET (15:19 GMT)

Publié le 29 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones