UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended to the Security Council on Friday that international talks begin on whether the province of Kosovo should be given independence or remain a part of Serbia.

Mr Annan made the recommendation in a letter to the 15-nation council accompanying a report on the controversy by his special envoy, Kai Eide of Norway.

Kosovo has been under U.N. administration, and the protection of NATO’s biggest peacekeeping operation, since mid-1999, when Serbian forces were driven out to stop what the West said was their persecution of the ethnic Albanian majority during an uprising by Albanian guerrillas.

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of the 2 million population, demand full independence from Serbia, which says they cannot have it.—Reuters