Euronews for the Kosovo Army: There will be 98m euros a year of budget, 5,000 armed troops and 3,000 reserve

And this event is already reporting the prestigious European and world media.

Among them is the European television network Euronews, under which moves from Kosovo to build an army have angered neighbouring Serbia, which has suggested military intervention.

As the medium recalls in question, in a vote scheduled for Friday, Kosovo's 120-seat parliament is expected to easily pass the bill submitted by the Government to turn the existing 4,000-strong Kosovo Security Force (FSK) into an expanded and lightly armed army.

In this direction, this medium writes, officials in Pristina have denied claims by Serbia that the main goal of the proposed army would be to clean up Kosovo's north with Serbs.

Kosovo's “Offices said the new army would essentially be a security force dealing with crisis response and civil defence operations essentially what the KSF does. They say its main tasks would be research and rescue operations, the annihilation of explosive devices, the treatment of fires and dangerous materials”, Euronews writes.

This medium has quoted Lieutenant Colonel Sylejman Cakaj, one of the commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK) during the 1999 war with Serbia, é now a battalion commander at the KSF, in charge of training soldiers who have said the formation of a new Kosovo army is not intended to harm anyone, especially Serbs in Kosovo, but rather to serve all Kosovo citizens and join international peacekeeping missions.

Cakaj has indicated that around 4% of the KSF consists of ethnic Serbs, who would also be transferred to the new Kosovo Army.

According to Euronews, the new army will have an annual budget of 98m euros, with 5,000 armed troops with light infantry weapons and 3,000 reserve.

The prestigious media recalls that a UN Security Council resolution from 1999 specifys that Kosovo is under the authority of the United Nations Co-ordination Administration Mission in Kosovo, with security provided by NATO-led peacekeepers.

As it is said, NATO and the US have helped train the current KSF.

“The US supports the formation of the new army, beginning with a change in the country's constitution, which currently makes no reference to an army. However, this would require support from ethnic Serbian lawmakers, who strongly oppose the measure”.

Euronews has not left out the latest developments in Kosovo, it broadcasts Telegrafi.

“Tensions rose after Kosovo imposed a 100% tax on Serbian imports last month in apparent retaliation as Serb lobbies prevented Kosovo from joining the international police organisation Interpol. Serbian officials say the tariffs are a virtual embargo designed to force Kosovo's remaining ethnic Serbs, the main consumers of the affected goods, to leave the country. The EU, the US and Russia have all urged Kosovo to lift tariffs”.

However, according to Euronews, although Serbia may have been “advanced the language”, it is unlikely to take military action, which would cause a direct confrontation with about 4,600 NATO peacekeepers, including American troops stationed in Kosovo since 1999, too, would surely trigger Western sanctions.