Kouchner says Kosovo mission a success

The senior United Nations official in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, has spoken of the success of the international mission to rebuild the province.

He was speaking in the capital, Pristina, a year after NATO-led troops first entered Kosovo under a UN mandate, following the bombing campaign against Serbia.

Mr Kouchner said Kosovo was now stable enough to make it on its own, but he again dismissed the concept of independence.

He appealed to both the ethnic Albanian and Serb communities to register for local elections scheduled for October and held out the prospect of greater autonomy.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service