Top UN official postpones local elections in Kosovo

The top U.N. official in Kosovo on Friday postponed local elections for up to twelve months, citing the need to focus on talks on the final status of the disputed province.

Soren Jessen-Petersen, the outgoing U.N. administrator in charge of running the province, said elections to choose municipal authorities scheduled for this fall "shall be held not earlier than three months and no later than six months" after the U.N. Security Council issues a formal decision on Kosovo's future status.

Such decision is expected by the end of the year.

"I am convinced that the decision to postpone the elections serves the best interests of all communities in Kosovo," Jessen-Petersen, who holds the ultimate power over decision-making in the province, said in a statement.

"The postponement will allow for the political focus on the status talks to be retained," he said.

Kosovo, formally a province of Serbia, has been administered by the United Nations since NATO's 1999 air war forced Serb forces to end a crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians and to relinquish control over the region.

Talks to determine Kosovo's future, whether it becomes an independent state or remains attached to Serbia, are under way and are aimed at steering the two sides toward settling the province's status by the end of the year.

The decision "foresees that municipal elections scheduled to be held in 2006 shall be postponed for a period not exceeding twelve months," the U.N. statement said, reports AP.

O.Ch.