(AFP) – Oct 7, 2008

PRISTINA (AFP) — US Defense Secretary Robert Gates stressed Washington's opposition to any partition of Kosovo during a landmark visit to Pristina, as Portugal formally recognised the new state's independence.

Gates said he wanted to demonstrate his support for American troops serving in a NATO peacekeeping force but denied that Russia had anything to fear from their presence.

And after Serbian President Boris Tadic's statement last week that partition could be the ultimate solution if other options to solve the status issue failed, Gates made it clear such a move would never get US support.

"I don't believe partition is a solution in Kosovo now or at any time in the future," Gates told reporters.

"The United States supports the territorial integrity of Kosovo."

With his visit Gates, who later Tuesday flew on to Macedonia, became the most senior US official to visit Kosovo since it declared its split from Serbia in February.

His visit came ahead of a scheduled UN General Assembly debate Wednesday on a Serbian draft resolution seeking support for an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the legality of Kosovo's independence.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17 and while the United States and many European Union states were quick to recognise the new state, the move provoked outrage in Belgrade and Moscow.

After talks with Gates, Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said his country's territorial integrity was "unchangeable, untouchable and internationally recognised."

"We all know that President Tadic already regrets the declaration he made days ago" on the possible partition of Kosovo, he added.

Gates said he hoped his trip would be seen in its "proper perspective of the United States manifesting its support for its friends and allies here in Europe."

He added, "NATO, Western Europe and the United States have relationships with all of these countries on Russia's periphery. ... We've said pretty consistently that Russia has nothing to fear.

The United States has 1,500 troops deployed in Kosovo as part of the KFOR force. During his visit, Gates gave an assurance that American soldiers would remain there at least until November 2009.

US General Larry Kay from NATO's multi-national force in Kosovo, told reporters later that troop rotations were already planned until 2010.

US President George W. Bush promised in July that he would try to convince more nations to formally recognise Kosovo. He has also expressed support for Kosovo's efforts to join the NATO alliance and the European Union.

In Lisbon Tuesday, Portugal declared it was recognising the independence of Kosovo.

"It is in the interests of the Portuguese state to proceed today to the formal recognition of Kosovo," Foreign Minister Luis Amado told the national assembly's foreign affairs committee.

"We are convinced that the independence of Kosovo has become irreversible," he added. Portugal thus became the 22nd European Union member state to have recognised Kosovo, he said.

But the row over Kosovo's independence deepened between former allies Montenegro and Serbia Tuesday. Montenegro's President Filip Vujanovic lashed out at Belgrade over a "non-diplomatic" statement.

Vujanovic told state-run radio that Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic had gone too far when he warned that it would be a "stab in the back" if Montenegro recognised Kosovo as an independent state.

Serbia's neighbours and close allies, Montenegro and Macedonia, have so far delayed recognising Kosovo.

US relations with Russia hit a post-Cold War low with the Russia-Georgia war in August. The extension eastwards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is also a source of friction with Russia.

About 90 percent of Kosovo's two million population are ethnic Albanian. A large part of the Serb minority lives in the north and rejects Kosovo's independence.

Defiant Kosovo Serbs held municipal and legislative elections in May at the same time as elections in Serbia and there have been outbreaks of violence since the declaration of independence.

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