NATO likely to reduce troops in Kosovo

BRUSSELS, June 11 (UPI) -- NATO officials said they might reduce the number of peacekeepers in Kosovo after it declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.

NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, called Kfor, number about 14,000 troops and alliance defense ministers at their meeting in Brussels this week are likely to downsize it to about 10,000 by January 2010, the BBC said Thursday.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's secretary-general, said any decision on the force size would be a result of a political and military analysis of the situation in Kosovo.

A U.S. official in Brussels told reporters the current security situation in Kosovo permits Kfor's presence to be reduced to 10,000, enough soldiers to serve as a deterrence force, the Serbian news agency Beta reported.

About 50,000 peacekeeping troops were deployed in Kosovo in 1999, following NATO air raids that forced Serbian military and police units out of the southern province.

Leaders of ethnic Albanians, who make up 80 percent of Kosovo's 2 million population, unilaterally declared independence from the Serbian government in Belgrade in 2008.

The United States and all major European Union countries have recognized Kosovo, while Serbia and its ally Russia refuse to recognize it.