PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo's parliament is convening to approve the formation of an army, a move that has angered Serbia which says it would threaten peace in the war-scarred region.
The 120-seat parliament on Friday will vote on three laws to turn an existing 4,000-member Kosovo Security Force into a regular lightly armed army. Ethnic Serb lawmakers were expected to boycott the vote.
Serbia fears the move's main purpose is to ethnically cleanse Kosovo's Serbian-dominated north, something strongly denied by Pristina.
Kosovo's 1998-199 war ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign in June 1999 that stopped a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.
Kosovo's 2008 independence isn't recognized by Serbia.
Disclaimer: This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Associated Press (AP) wire.
