Kosovo and neighbouring Macedonia will soon settle a border demarcation dispute and establish formal diplomatic relations, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said on December 22 after a meeting with a Macedonian Albanian leader.

"We expect that in the next couple of days, the issue of demarcation be closed, and then we will proceed with the protocol aspects of diplomatic relations," Thaci told reporters after meeting Imer Selmani, leader of a small ethnic Albanian minority party in Macedonia.

Thaci said cooperation between the neighbouring countries was already very good.

"Every aspect is going well, and there is great willpower and cooperation concerning this issue, and bilateral state responsibility," he said. He added that 2008 was a year of "new perspectives" for the region, mainly due to the ethnic Albanian majority's declaration of independence from Serbia in February after almost nine years under United Nations stewardship following the 1998/99 war.

Macedonia, which has an 160km-long border with Kosovo, recognised the new state in October.

The unmarked border is the only issue between the two states and a bilateral commission is currently marking the mountainous borderline under international supervision. Serbia, which rejects Kosovo's secession, disputes the legitimacy of the marking, arguing it should be the country participating in the settling of the border, instead of Kosovo.

Macedonia was pulled back from the brink of all-out war with its 25-percent ethnic Albanian minority in 2001 by Nato and European Union mediation, and the West sees normalisation of relations between Pristina and Skopje as essential in keeping ethnic tensions in check across the region.

Source: Balkan Insight