Nato agreed today to cut its peacekeeping force in Kosovo to 10,000 troops from 14,000 as part of a plan that could see the alliance's strength reduced to little more than 2,000 over two years.
Kosovo defied Serbia last year by declaring independence from Belgrade and was backed by many Western powers. Nato armies, stretched by conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and with the global economic crisis hitting military budgets, have been looking to wind down their presence in Kosovo.
"The principle has been agreed," Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news briefing of an agreement by Nato defence ministers in Brussels to cut the force to 10,000.
The alliance had yet to fix a firm date for this cut, he said, but added: "That date might well be January 1st (2010)."
"Instability and violence is steadily being replaced with security and growing prosperity," he said. "I'm not saying we're there yet, because we're not yet there. More has to be done. But I think we are on the right track."
Nato officials said the longer-term aim was to reduce the force, which currently has a strength of 13,800, to around 2,200 over two years, provided security allowed.
Mr de Hoop Scheffer said that KFor would remain as long as required. "Nato's commitment to maintain a safe and secure environment remains firm," he said.
Earlier, US defence secretary Robert Gates said any reduction in the NatoO presence from predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo should not leave existing troops exposed.
"My concern is that we do this in an organised and coherent fashion as an alliance, and not countries leaving unilaterally," he told reporters on board a plane from the Dutch city of Maastricht to the Nato meeting.
Asked whether any troop withdrawals in Kosovo would free up troops for the alliance's battle against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, Mr Gates said: "I would certainly hope so."
But he added: "I'm not going to bet the ranch on it."
A US official said Nato's Supreme Allied Commander Europe General John Craddock had put forward a plan that envisaged reducing the KFor force from 10,000 to 6,500 and then to 2,500 if security conditions allowed, but said there was no timeline.
"We want to do it in a way that is stabilising ... this is a conditions-based approach," he said, requesting anonymity.
KFor has been in Kosovo since 1999 under a United Nations mandate after a Nato bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces. It once had a strength of 55,000.
There had been wide fears in the West that Kosovo's move towards independence in January 2008 could increase tensions and fuel violence between its ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority, or reignite dormant tensions in the wider Balkans.
Those fears have largely proved unfounded and a mission review conducted for NATO found the security situation had improved enough for the initial reduction to 10,000.
"All steps after that will have to be evaluated at a political level," German defence minister Franz Josef Jung, whose country has some 2,200 troops in the Nato force, told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.
Kosovo's independence is recognised by 60 countries including the United States and most EU members. Serbia and Russia, a permanent UN Security Council member with veto rights, have said they will not recognise an independent Kosovo.
Reuters