TIRANA, Albania, March 16 (UPI) -- Albania and its neighbor to the northeast, Kosovo, plan to build a highway designed to connect Pristina, the capital of the autonomous Serbian province, with Albania's port of Durres on the Adriatic.
The highway would follow the same route along which a half million Kosovo Albanian refugees fled from Serb forces, Albanian media reported Saturday.
Tirana considers the road one of the main priorities of Albania, officials said, citing the purpose as strengthening economic, educational, cultural and even political ties -- an ambition of ethnic Albanians in the Balkans since 1912.
"Building of a highway from Pristina to Durres port on the Adriatic is one of the first priorities of the Kosovo government," says Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo prime minister.
The newly-elected president of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, also stressed the "great importance of building a highway from Pristina to Durres to integrate Albanians in Balkan and their integration in Europe as well."
Rugova and Rexhepi made the comments during talks with Albanian Foreign Minister Arta Dade, the first Albanian senior official to Kosovo after the election of president and prime minister in the province, which is under U.N. administration.
Albania has built about 40 miles out of 170 miles to the Kosovo border, but the remaining stretch is the most rugged and will require foreign investment, they said.
Building the highway would guarantee Kosovo a secure gate to the Adriatic without going through Serbia, Montenegro or Macedonia. Convoys to and from Kosovo have been repeatedly blocked, officials noted.
"A highway between Pristina to port of Durres on the Adriatic would improve the economic independence of Kosovo and would also be an additional positive factor for Kosovo Albanian leaders to achieve their political goal an independent Kosovo," Ded Kola, the editor in chief of Ekonomia, the biggest economic daily paper in Albania.
"Albanian leaders in both sides of the border will increase their political contacts in order to solve their mutual economic and political problems and combat together the organized crime, a big challenge for both Tirana and Pristina," he added.
Albanian politicians and analysts believe better economic and political relations would improve both regional stability and their chances of being accepted into European Union.
In other news, Kosovo and Albanian officials minimized the importance of a deal achieved two days ago between Serbia and Montenegro to form a new state.
"The agreement between Serbia and Montenegro does not has any indication on Kosovo issues and Kosovo is now on the way toward independence," said Rugova in a joint news conference with Dade in Pristina.
Albania's Parliament hailed the deal between Serbia and Montenegro as "breakthrough in finding new balance between them in a peaceful way," with Dade adding, "Albania would cooperate with both of them if they feel comfortable in this new union."
Kosovo remains technically part of Serbia, although it has been administered under a U.N. Security Council resolution since the end of a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 to stop Serb repression. Serbia and Montenegro are the remaining states in the Yugoslav federation.
Under the Security Council resolution, United Nations administrators are the only ones who can make any decision on Kosovo's status. But Kosovo Albanian leaders have made no secret of their wish for the province to be an independent country.
Under former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Kosovo Albanians lost autonomy, the claim to learn in their own language and other rights. Serb forces killed an estimated 10,000 people in Kosovo and expelled and displaced nearly a million ethnic Albanians to neighboring countries.
