Kosovo will declare independence from Serbia with Western backing after the Serbian presidential election next week if the nationalist candidate wins, political sources said today.
"If (Tomislav) Nikolic wins, it's the 9th or 10th," a senior political source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
A second source confirmed that if pro-Western incumbent Boris Tadic wins the knife-edge contest, ethnic Albanians in the breakaway province would be expected to wait at least another week, declaring on Febraury 17th at the earliest.
The major Western powers are "pushing for February," one of the sources added.
Nato's 16,000-strong peace force is braced for possible unrest, and a potential backlash by Serb-dominated north Kosovo where Serbs promise to reject independence.
European Union foreign ministers expect next month to approve the deployment a 1,800-strong police and justice mission over a four-month transition from the United Nations authorities that have run Kosovo since the 1998-99 war.
Western diplomats say some of the 27 EU member states would favour delaying independence until late February or early March if Mr Tadic wins next Sunday's tight run-off election, keen to help him control the inevitable political fallout from the loss of what many Serbs regard as their religious heartland.
A senior Western diplomat said that victory for hardliner Mr Nikolic, whose party leader is standing trial for war crimes stemming from the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, would undermine any calls for a delay on Kosovo.
Serbian officials refused to comment on the information.
Analysts say the presidential election, which could decide Serbia's attitude to the West after Kosovo's independence, will be extremely tight, with latest polls giving Mr Tadic a two point lead, within the statistical margin of error.