Kosovo

·         On February 21, 2008 several hundred protesters attacked the US and other embassies in Serbian capital in anger at Western support for Kosovo independence. Serbian PM Vojislav Kostunica delivered an impassioned speech condemning  secession.

·         Protesters broke into the US compound in Belgrade and briefly set part of the embassy alight. Firemen later found an unidentified charred body inside.

·         The UK, Belgian, Croatian and Turkish missions were also targeted. The UN Security Council condemned the attacks.

·         The attacks followed a peaceful rally by at least 150,000 people in the city.

·         Most Serbs regard Kosovo as their religious and cultural heartland.

·         "As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia. Kosovo belongs to the Serbian people," he told the flag-waving crowd.

·         The US, UK, Germany and Italy are among those to have recognised Kosovo.

·         Serbian President Boris Tadic appealed for calm.

·         Serbia, supported by Russia and China, says Kosovo's declaration violates international law.

·         On February 19, 2008 Nato troops sealed the northern borders of Kosovo after Serbs angry at its weekend declaration of independence ransacked two crossings at Jarinje and Banja, manned by UN and Kosovo police.

·         In Pristina, Kosovan PM Hashim Thaci said an isolated incident would not be allowed to diminish the glory of Kosovan independence.

·         Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic made an impassioned speech saying that Kosovo would never be a sovereign nation and would remain part of Serbia forever.

·         European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, became the first international statesman to visit Kosovo since its independence declaration.

·         The US, Britain, France, Germany and Italy have all recognised the new state, but others have not.

·         Russia has warned that the declaration of independence endangers international stability, while China has expressed its deep concern.

·         The UN Security Council is divided over how to respond to Kosovo's move, and it has failed to agree on any action.

·         Russia said its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had warned US counterpart Condoleezza Rice in a telephone conversation that it would lead to trouble.

·         The Russian warning came just hours after US President George W Bush said the US would soon establish full diplomatic relations with Kosovo.

·         On Feb 18, the Serbian parliament passed a resolution condemning Kosovo's declaration of independence.

·         The resolution also formally annulled the acts of the government in Pristina, saying Belgrade's sovereignty over Kosovo was guaranteed by the UN and international law.

·         In a separate move, Serbia recalled its ambassadors to the US, France and Turkey because those countries had recognised Kosovo's independence.

·         Spain and several other member states have withheld recognition because of concerns about separatist movements within their own borders.

·         Serbian security forces were driven out of Kosovo in 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign aimed at halting the violent repression of ethnic Albanian separatists.

·         The province has been under UN administration and Nato protection since then.

·         Some 2 million Albanians live in Kosovo alongside around 120,000 remaining Serbs.

Half of these are concentrated in an area running north from Mitrovica to the Serbian border, the rest in isolated enclaves further south

·         On February 18, 2008 European Union leaders called for unity within the bloc over  independence of Kosovo but Spain, grappling with its own separatist movements, dissented and vowed not to recognise the new state.

·         German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin would not take a decision soon, even as Kosovo's ethnic Albanian PM Hashim Thaci, a US-backed former guerrilla leader, said in Pristina he expected first recognitions "any minute".

·         Diplomats at the weekend said the main European powers involved in Balkan diplomacy, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, could announce recognition directly after the EU meeting, with the United States making the same move.

·         Yet aside from Spain, at least five others, Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, have indicated they would not do so now because of legal misgivings or concern about restive minorities in their own countries.

·         On February 18, 2008 US President George W. Bush acknowledged that the people of Kosovo are independent though he stopped short of formal recognition of its independence.

·         On February 18, 2008 Serbia recalled its ambassador from Washington in protest at US recognition of Kosovo independence, saying the US has "violated international law".

On February 17, 2008 in Kosovo, parliament (with PM Hashim Thaci) unanimously endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia, in a historic session;  Serbian PM Vojislav Kostunica denounced the US for helping create a "false state".

·         Tens of thousands of people had thronged the streets of Kosovo's capital, Pristina

·         Crowds surrounded an independence monument which was unveiled during the evening and signed by Thaci and Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu.

·         Ethnic Albanians staged noisy celebrations in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, and in Brussels, outside the headquarters of Nato and the European Union.

·         The first sign of trouble in Kosovo came in the ethnic Serbian area of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica, where two hand grenades were thrown at international community buildings.

·         One exploded at a UN court building while the other failed to go off outside offices expected to house the new EU mission.

·         In Belgrade, demonstrators threw stones and broke windows at the US embassy as riot police tried to fend off a crowd of around 1,000 people.

·         Kosovo's 10 Serbian MPs boycotted the assembly session in protest at the declaration.

KOSOVO PROFILE

·         Population about two million

·         Majority ethnic Albanian; 10% Serb

·         Under UN control since Nato drove out Serb forces in 1999

·         2,000-strong EU staff to take over from UN after independence

·         Nato to stay to provide security

·         The UN Security Council went into emergency session evening after Russia called for the United Nations to declare the Kosovo declaration illegal.

·         UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on all sides to keep to their commitments and refrain from violence.

·         Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that the resolution allowing the UN to administer Kosovo since 1999 was still in force so there could be no legal basis for any change in status.

·         But seven Western states said the UN Security Council could not agree on Kosovo's future and all attempt to reach a negotiated outcome had been exhausted.

·         "We regret that the Security Council cannot agree on the way forward, but this impasse has been clear for many months," Belgium's UN ambassador Johan Verbeke said.

o        He gave the statement on behalf of Belgium, France, Italy, the UK, Croatia, Germany, and the United States.

·         Kosovo, or part of it, cannot join any other country. It will be supervised by an international presence. Its armed forces will be limited and it will make strong provisions for Serb minority protection.

·         Russia's foreign ministry has indicated that Western recognition of an independent Kosovo could have implications for the Georgian breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.