(dpa) - The Serbian government Thursday "annulled" a declaration of independence that the Kosovo leadership is expected to announce shortly and in addition denounced the European Union mission planned to help the emerging country.
"This is a decision of historic significance - the foundation of Serbia's national programme in Kosovo ... in the coming period," Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica told a press conference after the cabinet meeting.
The decision annulling the "illegal unilateral declaration of independence ... (and) all acts violating Serbian integrity" would be activated when Kosovo announces its move.
The declaration was also to be sent to the Serbian parliament for an emergency vote once Pristina makes its move. "It is an event that will become reality in a few days," Kostunica said.
Backed by big Western powers, Kosovo leaders, representing the 90-per-cent ethnic Albanian majority in the province, are expected to remain unperturbed and declare secession on Sunday.
Addressing "all citizens of Kosovo," Kostunica said they "have the full right not to recognize" the Kosovo authorities and promised them legal protection - but without explaining how this protection would be provided as Serbia was effectively ousted from Kosovo by a NATO intervention in 1999.
The ethnic Albanians are impatiently awaiting the split from Serbia.
Belgrade also appealed on Kosovo Serbs to remain in their homes, promising them support, which Kostunica said would include funds from the state budget.
Serbia has in the past already passed several resolutions and even a new constitution to affirm its legal claim on Kosovo, which nevertheless continued its slide toward independence with the support of the United States and leading EU countries.
Also on Thursday, the UN Security Council is to hold a closed-door debate on the anticipated move by Kosovo. The meeting was called by Serbia, but is not expected to turn the tide, despite Russia's support.
Speaking in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin repeated earlier accusations that supporting Kosovo's independence was "illegal and immoral," Belgrade media reported.
With the power of veto in the Security Council, Russia is backing Serbia's claim of sovereignty over Kosovo and has last year already blocked a plan to promote the province into a new country by a UN decision.
As a consequence, the province will split from Serbia in a unilateral move that will quickly be recognized by the West. The EU decision to send a law-enforcement mission with the aim of helping Kosovo along its first sovereign steps has infuriated Kostunica.
Serbia's latest resolution also brands the EU mission as illegal and dismisses in advance any consequences it may produce. Kostunica said that the mission had no "legal basis" to send the mission, but acknowledged that it may nevertheless be physically deployed."
Answering questions during the briefing Kostunica, was repeatedly forced to acknowledge that Serbia had no means other than "determined" and "persistent" diplomatic measures to prevent the developments in Kosovo.
In protest at the plan, Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia last week already refused a political and economic cooperation agreement offered by EU, which has however strained the already uneasy government coalition.
The strife between Kostunica and the pro-European part of his government coalition, grouped around President Boris Tadic, produced a week-long deadlock in which neither the cabinet nor parliament were able to meet.
The impasse was overcome when Tadic, who heads the Democratic Party, agreed to the decision and draft resolution annulling any pro- independence acts by Kosovo's authorities.
That has also paved the way for a parliament session on Friday in which Tadic is to be inaugurated after winning re-election on February 3. The assembly would presumably meet again early next week, after Kosovo declares independence.
But the simmering government crisis would likely erupt when relations with the EU also return to the agenda, possibly when Brussels renews its offer of closer political and economic ties.
While Tadic insists that Serbia must remain on course to membership of EU, Kostunica would certainly remain hostile to Brussels.
"There would be no greater humiliation than to sign and give even indirect consent to the puppet creation on its soil," Kostunica said in an interview released Thursday, referring to the rejected cooperation deal which would, in his words, have legitimized the upcoming EU mission to Kosovo.
In the interview with the Glas Javnosti daily, Kostunica also dismissed accusations that he was blocking Serbia's integration with Europe over Kosovo.
"Serbia is neither in Asia, nor in Latin America, but in the heart of Europe, Serbia belongs to Europe and nothing can change that," he said.
However, Tadic's Democratic Party and the smallest side in the three-way coalition, the reformist G17 Plus party, said Serbia must progress toward EU membership regardless of Kosovo.
Officials of the pro-European camp said that early elections would remain the only option if Kostunica continued to block agreements leading the country closer to EU integration.
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