U.N., Kosovo Albanians Sign Power-Sharing Deal

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia — In a move to bring stability to Kosovo, the province’s senior U.N. administrator signed a power-sharing deal Wednesday with ethnic Albanian leaders and called on the Serbian minority to join in.

The province’s Serbian leadership rejected the agreement. Serbs called it another step toward an independent, Albanian-run Kosovo, which would violate the U.N. resolutions that established the international peacekeeping mission here in June.

U.N. administrator Bernard Kouchner signed the agreement along with three ethnic Albanian leaders--Hashim Thaci, former political chief of the officially disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army; Ibrahim Rugova, president of the unrecognized Kosovo Republic; and moderate politician Rexhep Qosja.

The agreement creates a new interim administration to run the province. The new administration, in which Kouchner will serve as governor, is to absorb all existing administrative structures, including Thaci’s shadow government and Rugova’s self-declared republic.

U.N. officials said the new administration will be in operation by Jan. 31 and will govern until elections, possibly by September.

The agreement also provided one position for a Kosovo Serb, but no Serbian leader showed up for the signing ceremony.