UN:UN SECRETARY general Ban Ki-moon yesterday brushed aside Russian fury and downgraded the UN mission in Kosovo to enable the European Union to launch its most ambitious foreign project.
With Kosovo due to enact a constitution for an independent state on Sunday, Mr Ban announced a "reconfiguration" of the nine-year-old UN civil mission so the EU can "assume an enhanced operational role", he told Kosovo president Fatmir Sejdiu.
Russia responded by demanding the sacking of the UN chief in Kosovo, Germany's Joachim Rucker, whose conduct paving the way for the EU, it said, was "scandalous obstinacy".
Any change, it argued, could only be by decision of the UN Security Council, where Russia wields a veto. But Mr Sejdiu said he wanted the UN out in months.
Russia and Serbia refuse to acknowledge Kosovo's independence, declared in February when the Albanian-majority province seceded from Serbia and won the backing of the US and a majority of EU states.
The EU is set to deploy more than 2,000 police, judges and administrators.
In a further move, Nato defence ministers in Brussels resolved months of dispute and said they would help to form an initially modest Kosovo security force.
The biggest headache is the town of Mitrovica, where the Serbs seek to practise de facto partition and which is a no-go area for the Europeans. The diminished UN staff will probably remain in the area.
Thirty-six countries, including the United States and 18 EU nations, have established diplomatic ties with Kosovo.