Kosovo PM rejects talks on status

Kosovo will join the European Union and NATO as a whole, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said, brushing off any new talks over its status, disputed by Serbia, Beta news agency reported on Saturday.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci warned on Thursday that a Council of Europe report linking him to organ trafficking and organised crime could endanger long-awaited EU-brokered talks with Serbia."It is an attack by Dick Marty against the dialogue (between) Kosovo and Serbia," Thaci told AFP in an interview, referring to the report drawn up by the Council of Europe envoy.Thaci slammed the report as "racist" and described it as "Goebbels-style propaganda", a reference to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is one of the "biggest fish" in organised crime in his country, a British newspaper cited leaked NATO military intelligence reports as saying on Tuesday.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Friday that talks with Serbia would be among the first priorities of his new government, as the US voiced support for the dialogue.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Kosovo leaders on Wednesday to start talks with Serbia as soon as possible despite a political crisis over the president's recent resignation."We think the dialogue should start as soon as it is ready because even though there will be elections here and then in the following years elections in Serbia, we believe that it is in Kosovo's interest for this dialogue to begin and to conclude in as expeditious a manner as possible," Clinton said after meeting Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.

Allegations of involvement in selling organs extracted from Serb prisoners by ethnic Albanian independence fighters piled pressure on Kosovo's prime minister Hashim Thaci Friday.The third biggest party in Kosovo's parliament, according to disputed preliminary election results, called for Thaci, already facing problems forming a new government, to be put on trial.

Kosovo on Sunday holds its first election since declaring independence nearly three years ago and the vote is expected to weaken Prime Minister Hashim Thaci's grip on power.Thaci, hailed as the leader who unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, is in a neck-and-neck race with the LDK party of popular Pristina mayor Isa Mustafa, according to the latest polls.

Kosovo's parliament on Tuesday met in a special urgent session to confirm the second mandate of controversial leader Hashim Thaci as prime minister and to vote on a new president.The three main opposition parties staged a walk out of the session leaving only 67 out of 120 deputies to vote on the president and the government.The only candidate for president is millionaire Behgjet Pacolli whose party joined forces with the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of incumbent prime minister Hashim Thaci.