The Kosovo Liberation Army yesterday announced a delay in the disarmament of the organisation, previously agreed with NATO, saying it was unhappy that no armed force was to replace it. Under an agreement with the NATO commander, Lieut-Gen Sir Michael Jackson, the KLA's 20,000 guerrillas were due to complete disarmament at midnight last night.
But after a weekend of ceremonies marking the dissolution of units, KLA commanders announced that they would not disarm because a replacement force announced by the United Nations administration was unacceptable.
The UN says KLA members will form the Kosovo Corps, a 3,000-strong organisation, but that the organisation will be unarmed, and trained not for war but to help with disasters and reconstruction.
The KLA says the original disarmament agreement, signed not with the UN but with NATO, foresaw the creation of an armed force for Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, supervised by NATO. Many Kosovars see such as a force as the only long-term guarantee that Serbian forces will not repeat the campaign against them launched in the spring.
"We want to see it called the Kosovo Corps, but it must not only be for civilian use," said Mr Pleurat Sejdiu, the KLA's Deputy Foreign Minister.
Opponents of the KLA say the organisation is angry that it is being "sidelined" by the UN. But the KLA says the only long-term guarantee ethnic Albanians have against the ethnic cleansing by Serbian forces is to have their own army.
"We want it to be under NATO control, that is OK, " Mr Sedjiu added.
In practice, the disarmament of the guerrilla force was always likely to be incomplete. Most of their weapons are small arms, easily hidden in the farms and villages where its members live. But the UN had hoped that a declaration to disarm would make a compromise peace agreement with the Serbs easier to implement.
The KLA first came to international notice early last year when it launched a guerrilla war against Serbian forces in this southern province. By last summer the war had escalated to full-scale battles, which international peace efforts failed to halt. During the recent NATO air war, KLA units played a subsidiary role. Since the end of the fighting, the KLA's leaders have moved onto the political stage, with their leader, Mr Hasim Thaci, fighting for the hearts and minds of ordinary Albanians in the run-up to elections planned for next year. Many parts of Kosovo, especially in the west, remain effectively under KLA command, with former combat soldiers used as unofficial policeman.
At a parade in the football stadium of the capital, Pristina, on Saturday, Mr Thaci indicated that while the KLA would dissolve, a fighting force under another name must continue to operate.
"The KLA is going to be transformed and it won't be called the KLA anymore. But it will be a defence force for all Kosovo citizens."
Mr Sejdiu said that the organisation feels it has been marginalised by the new UN administration in the province, saying more members should have been recruited as policemen and judges by the UN.
Three months after the bombings, the province is polarised with inter-ethnic attacks continuing between Serbs and Albanians despite the province of more than 30,000 NATO troops. Frantic negotiations are likely to go on for the coming days as UN officials try to persuade the KLA to go ahead with its disarmament.