PRISTINA, March 8: Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned on Tuesday after being indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal over his role as a guerilla commander in the Serbian province's 1998-99 conflict, sparking fears of renewed ethnic violence.

"I resigned today from the post of prime minister and I've transmitted my resignation to the Kosovo president," he said as his bodyguards, fellow war veterans, broke down in tears beside him.

The 35-year-old protested his innocence and called on his fellow ethnic Albanians to continue working toward independence from Serbia despite the indictment against him, which he described as a "big mistake".

"I am innocent," the nationalist hard-liner said as he announced his resignation to reporters. "I ask you (Kosovo Albanians) to accept a fact that is almost impossible to accept, but do it for your country and your nation. I want to tell you that I am innocent of all the crimes of which I am accused."

He said he would cooperate with international justice for the sake of Kosovo's future, but warned that the international community had blundered by treating "freedom fighters and aggressors in the same way".

"Everything ... is the result of the inventions of Belgrade and the horse-trading that some quarters have engaged in with Belgrade to ensure the transfer of Serb criminals (to the tribunal in The Hague)," he said. -AFP