On the night of June 15 2008 a solemn ceremony marked the entering into force of Kosovo's constitution, world news agencies reported. The province broke away from Serbia and declared independence on February 17, after decades of ethnic tension, genocide and war.

"This is our Bible and our Koran," Kosovar president Fatmir Sejdiu said, as quoted by website Balkan Insight. "Our constitution entails modern constitutional resolutions deriving from a democratic heritage, yet with special provisions for the circumstances and specifics of Kosovo as a multiethnic society, with its Albanian majority and other minorities, to whom the rights and privileges are given with a powerful guarantee based on the constitution," he added.

Serbian president Boris Tadic, predictably, slammed the constitution as invalid. "Serbia regards Kosovo as its own southern province, and is defending its integrity by peaceful means, through diplomacy, not force," he said, as quoted by Reuters.

Meanwhile, United Nation's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced on June 12 UN plans to reconfigure the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), following the entering into force of the Kosovar constitution, UN's news centre said in a media statement.

UNMIK has been managing the troubled Balkan province ever since Nato's bombing intervention in Serbia took place in 1999 to end the ethnic cleansing carried out by Serbian forces on the orders of Slobodan Milosevic.

In a letter sent both to presidents Tadic and Sejdiu, Ban said UNMIK would be adjusted so as to allow the increase of the role of the European Union in the rule of law field, but still under an UN umbrella. The reconfiguration would include appointing a new UN special representative to Kosovo.

"It is my intention to reconfigure the structure and profile of the international civil presence to one that (...) enables the European Union to assume an enhanced operational role in Kosovo in accordance with resolution 1244," Ban wrote, as quoted by Reuters.

The deployment of European Union's Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, the EULEX, failed to meet its June 15 deadline and will continue over the months to come. The EULEX was designed as a continuation of UNMIK's presence in Kosovo.

Serbia and Russia, who is fully backing Belgrade in its refusal to recognise an independent Kosovo, have claimed EULEX is illegal as it is backed by no official UN decision. Russia, as one of the veto powers on the UN Security Council, has vowed to block any resolution to Serbia's detriment.