UN holds special Kosovo meeting

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The UN Security Council will hold a closed meeting on Thursday to discuss Kosovo, which is expected to declare independence from Serbia within days.

The meeting is being held at the request of Serbia, which has expressed strong opposition to any attempt by Kosovo to break away.

Serbia's ambassador to the UN told the BBC that Belgrade would refrain from retaliatory measures against Kosovo.

The US and many EU countries plan to recognise Kosovo's independence.

Serbia's UN ambassador Pavle Jevremovic said the Security Council "must remain part of, let's say, the mechanism handling the crisis, and must be aware what is going on, because after all, a unilateral declaration of independence will bring about the partition of Serbia".

"No country can accept so lightly dismemberment," he added.

Russia is backing Serbia on Kosovo. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said secession would be a mistake and everything possible should be done to "prevent negative developments".

Kosovo is expected to make an independence declaration on Sunday or Monday.

EU mission

The United Nations has administered Kosovo since a Nato bombing campaign in 1999 drove out Serb forces accused of persecuting the province's majority ethnic Albanians.

A civilian police and justice mission for Kosovo is expected to be given the go-ahead by EU member states by the end of the week.

A senior official told the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels that deployment of the 1,800 staff would be staggered over four months.

By early June, 1,500 police officers including special anti-riot units and 250 judges, prosecutors and customs officials would be in place to maintain stability in the self-proclaimed state.

The police and judges are expected to come from Germany and Italy as well as other countries, including the United States, Turkey, Croatia, Norway and Switzerland.

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