Serbia not to recognize legitimacy of EU forces in Kosovo

BUCHAREST, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Serbia will not recognize the legitimacy of the European Union forces in Kosovo, Serbia's President Boris Tadic said here on Thursday.

At the talks with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu in Bucharest, Tadic stressed that "Serbia will not recognize the legitimacy of the EU forces in Kosovo because the decision was adopted outside the United Nations,"

"Today, KFOR and UNMIK forces have the obligation to protect the interests of Kosovo's residents," he said, adding that "no institution has the right to recognize the independence of an illegal state."

"We will continue the cooperation and the dialogue with UNMIK and KFOR believing in the goodwill of these institutions," Tadic said.

Tadic said that Serbia will protect its citizens living in Kosovo and Metohija.

"We will voice our concern both in the institutional way, through our cooperation with UNMIK and KFOR and by the direct help we are going to give our citizens in Kosovo and Metohija," Tadic said.

Tadic started an official visit to Romania on Thursday noon. It is Tadic's first visit abroad after becoming Serbia's president and since the Kosovo province proclaimed its independence.

Tadic's visit to Bucharest comes barely days after the unilateral declaration of independence by the Kosovo province and Bucharest's announcement that it does not recognize the act.

The EU approved the so-called rule of law mission one day before Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.

The EU mission, tasked with the establishment of Kosovo's legal framework and administrative infrastructure, will gradually replace the UN mission in Kosovo.

The ethnic Albanian-dominated Kosovo, which has been under the UN administration since 1999, unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on Feb. 17.