Serbia: EU mission not welcome in Kosovo

BELGRADE, Serbia, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Serbia's government minister called on the European Union to cancel its planned security mission to the breakaway Kosovo province.

Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic said the EU should drop its plan to dispatch the 1,800-person mission to Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province, if Brussels wants to sign a pre-accession agreement with Serbia Jan. 28, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported Wednesday.

Jocic's statement came one day after Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said Serbia should sign the association agreement with the EU as soon as possible.

Jocic said the EU mission in Kosovo would create a puppet product on Serbian territory, violating Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Ethnic-Albanian leaders said they plan to declare independent Kosovo in coming weeks.

The EU mission is to replace U.N. administration officials that have governed Kosovo since 1999, when NATO air raids stopped ethnic cleansing by Serbian police and army forces.

Two years of talks on the future status of Kosovo have brought no result as leaders of ethnic-Albanians insist on independence from Serbia, while the Serbs want to keep Kosovo as its autonomous province.