PRISTINA, Serbia, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- NATO's chief said Thursday the alliance will not tolerate violence in Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province, media said.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters there will be no cutting down in the number of NATO troops in Kosovo, as U.N.-led talks on future status of Kosovo are being held between Serbs and ethnic-Albanians, Serbia's RTS radio-television reported.
A new round of the talks is scheduled Wednesday in Austria to work on a compromise. The two sides have stuck to their opposed stands, the Serbian government in Belgrade says it will not accept Kosovo's independence, while leaders of ethnic-Albanians insist on Kosovo independent of Serbia.
In Pristina, Scheffer met representatives of Kosovo's Albanians, officials of a U.N. mission and Serbs from the northern enclave of Kosovska Mitrovica.
U.N. administrators and NATO troops have been deployed in Kosovo since 1999 war activities.
There are about 16,000 NATO troops stationed in Kosovo.
