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Economics key to a stable Kosovo

Solving Kosovo`s desperate economic situation is crucial to making and keeping peace in the breakaway Serbian province, the head of the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force there said on last week. Poverty, unemployment, and a lack of foreign investment are fanning ethnic tension in Kosovo and contributing to corruption, crime and violence, Italian Lieutenant-General Giuseppe Valotto said in remarks delivered for him at a conference.

Talks to determine Kosovo`s status were set to start this week, with the province`s ethnic Albanian majority arguing for Kosovo`s independence and Belgrade insisting the province is an integral part of Serbia.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization kicked Serbian forces out of Kosovo after a two-year conflict which pitted Belgrade against ethnic Albanian separatist fighters. Serbian forces were accused of killing thousands of civilians in a campaign to drive Albanians from the province. The province`s ambiguous status, operating like a state run by the United Nations but with no formal sovereignty, means it cannot borrow money from international institutions.