Veteran pacifist Mr Ibrahim Rugova failed to win enough support in a first round of voting in Kosovo's new legislature today to become president of the ethnic Albanian-dominated Yugoslav province.
Mr Rugova, whose Democratic League of Kosovo party won the November 17th parliamentary election but still needs outside support for him to become president, was the only candidate.
To be elected in a first or second round Mr Rugova would need a two-thirds majority, or 81 votes, in the 120-seat assembly. But he got the support of only 49 deputies, speaker Mr Nexhat Daci announced.
The rules change in a possible third round so that a simple majority is required in the assembly, set up to give Kosovo autonomy under a UN umbrella. The assembly session ended after the voting and it was not clear when it would meet again.
Kosovo was placed under UN-led administration in June 1999 after 11 weeks of NATO air strikes aimed at ending repression of the province's ethnic Albanians directed from Belgrade when Mr Slobodan Milosevic still ruled Yugoslavia.