NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is meeting with Kosovo officials and evaluating a possible winding down of the 13,800 strong Kosovo Force (KFOR) if the security situation in the region continues to improve.

"I would like to stress that this decision only reflects the improvement of the security situation in Kosovo and I would like to add to this that the decision is conditionally based," he told reporters in Pristina. He did not give a time frame to a possible troop reduction.

The new NATO head, who took over from Jaap de Hoop-Scheffer earlier this month, made the comments after meeting with Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. He is also to hold a meeting with the KFOR commander, Lieutenant General Giuseppe Emilio Gay during the one-day visit.

"The fact I decided to go to Kosovo only a few days after I took over my new office clearly reflects that I will give Kosovo high priority in my work as secretary general of NATO," Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister, said after the meeting.

Rasmussen's first trip as NATO chief was to Afghanistan, where he wants to boost NATO troops to complete a successful handover of security to local forces.

Disputed region

NATO troops have been in Kosovo since 1999, after an 11-week bombing campaign by the alliance to end a bloody crackdown by forces loyal to then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic on separatist ethnic Albanians.

An initial force of 50,000 has been reduced to under 14,000, and NATO has announced plans to cut the mission to 10,000 troops by January.

NATO has plans to assist Kosovo authorities in the development of a Kosovo Security Force, a civilian protection force of about 2,500 that would help in emergency situations.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, although Serbia has said it will never recognize an independent state and would continue to fight its independence diplomatically. The West generally supports Kosovo independence although it is opposed by Russia and China.

Of the territory's two million people, some 90 percent are ethnic Albanian.

jam/dpa/AFP
Editor: Nancy Isenson