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PRISTINA : US Defence Secretary Robert Gates emphasised that Washington would oppose any partition of Kosovo following its declaration of independence as he made a landmark visit to Pristina on Tuesday.
As he became the most senior US official to visit Kosovo since it declared its split from Serbia in February, Gates said he wanted to demonstrate his support for American troops serving in a NATO peacekeeping force but denied that Russia had anything to fear from their presence.
In clear reference to Serbian President Boris Tadic's statement last week that partition could be the ultimate solution if other options to solve the status issue failed, Gates made clear such a move would never gain US support.
"I don't believe partition is a solution in Kosovo now or at any time in the future," Gates told reporters.
"The United States supports the territorial integrity of Kosovo," he added.
February's unilateral declaration of independence by the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo received prompt recognition from the US and most European Union countries, despite fierce opposition from Belgrade and Russia.
After talks with Gates, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said his country's territorial integrity was "unchangeable, untouchable and internationally recognised."
"We all know that President Tadic has already remorsed because of the declaration he launched days ago" on the possible partition of Kosovo, Thaci said.
Gates promised that the US would provide a military aid to Kosovo in terms of equipment and training of the security forces, but gave no further details.
The United States has 1,500 troops deployed in Kosovo as part of the KFOR force and earlier in the day Gates gave an assurance that American soldiers would remain there at least until November 2009.
"The next rotation I think will take us until November next year," Gates said on the plane ahead of the visit.
US President George W Bush promised Sejdiu and Thaci in July that he would try to convince more nations to formally recognise Kosovo. The US president expressed support for Kosovo's efforts to join the NATO alliance and the European Union.
US relations with Russia hit a post-Cold War low with the Russia-Georgia war in August. The extension eastwards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is also source of friction with Russia.
Gates said he hoped his trip would be seen in its "proper perspective of the United States manifesting its support for its friends and allies here in Europe."
He added, "NATO, Western Europe and the United States have relationships with all of these countries on Russia's periphery... we've said pretty consistently that Russia has nothing to fear.
"I don't consider Kosovo Russia's backyard and my primary focus in going to Kosovo is to visit American troops there."
After Kosovo, Gates heads on to Macedonia, a country with ambitions of joining NATO, before a meeting of the alliance in Hungary on Thursday and Friday.
NATO enlargement was also likely to figure prominently in Gates' talks in addition to the war effort in Afghanistan. The NATO meeting was set to discuss relations with Russia.
"Alliance transformation is really important at this point," said Gates, adding, however, that the US had to "recognise the reality of Russia's role on a number of important issues."
About 90 per cent of Kosovo's two million population is ethnic Albanian. A large part of the Serb minority lives in the north and rejects Kosovo's independence.
Defiant Kosovo Serbs held municipal and legislative elections in May at the same time as elections in Serbia and there have been outbreaks of violence since the declaration of independence. - AFP/ms
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