The United Nations mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is still waiting for the instructions from UN headquarters in New York as to its new role in the world's newest state, UNMIK spokesperson Alexander Ivanko told reporters on June 4 2008.

UNMIK's mandate needs to change once the Kosovar constitution enters into force on June 15, thus transferring a lot of the powers now exercised by the UN agents to Kosovo's own institutions.

"We are expecting to receive very concrete guidelines on the reconfiguration of UNMIK in the next days," Ivanko said. "We fully understand the reality on the ground and we fully understand that it will change dramatically on June 16 once that constitution goes into effect. How the UN will relate to that, is something that we are waiting for."

Kosovo's prime minister Hashim Thaci said that the Kosovar institutions were fully prepared to pick up things from the point at which UN withdraws, UNMIK On Air said.

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 carryed out by Serbian forces on the orders of Slobodan Milosevic.

In the meantime, the deployment of European Union's Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, the EULEX, has failed to meet its deadline and will not be completed by June 15, as initially stated. 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.