ROME - Italy said a multinational security force of up to 6,000 troops it plans to lead into Albania should begin deployment in the week starting April 14th. Senior diplomats from eight countries either committed to or considering participation met in Rome yesterday to establish a political steering committee for the operation.
The force, authorised but not organised by the United Nations, will secure key ports and transport routes to protect the delivery of European humanitarian aid from gunmen and lawless mafias in the anarchic Balkan state.
It has Security Council approval to operate for an initial three months, until elections planned for the end of June. But the Italian defence minister, Mr Beniamino Andreatta, was quoted yesterday as saying that the mission may need to stay longer.
"The UN has set this time scale but it is clear that if this military and electoral cycle requires four or five months, it is probable that the UN will extend the mandate," Mr Andreatta told La Sampa.
Italy is expected to provide between 2,000 and 2,500 troops, France 1,000, Greece 700, Turkey 500, Spain 300 and Romania 400. Austria and Denmark say they are also considering participation. All eight countries are represented on the diplomats' committee, which will report regularly to the Security Council, the EU and the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co operation in Europe).
Albania has been in chaos since January, when shady investment schemes into which much of the population had pumped their life savings began to collapse.