Mr Frederiksen said more than 17,000 applications for jobs on a separate 3,000-strong local force had been returned by Friday, including papers from 4,000 former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters.

He said the domestic police force would reflect Kosovo's demographic makeup. Previously, about 10,000 Serbian security police had ruled the province, despite the fact that it had an 90% Albanian majority.

Ethnic Albanian and Serb police will be expected to work together in ethnically-mixed areas, Mr Frederiksen said.

But none would work unsupervised by UN police until they had proved their professionalism and even-handedness over a period of time.

Mr Frederiksen said only about 500 of the job applications had come from Serbs, but he hoped for more.

Attacks on K-For

As the police prepared to start work, K-For expressed alarm at the number of attacks against its soldiers in the region.

A spokesman issued a reminder that its troops would defend themselves if threatened.

The warning followed an outbreak of violence on Thursday night which saw various attacks, including three on checkpoints controlled by the Russians. One soldier received a slight wound.

The spokesman said peacekeepers had come under attack about 30 times since they arrived in Kosovo.

New prosecutor

For his part, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has proposed Swiss Attorney-General Carla Del Ponte as the new war crimes prosecutor in The Hague.

If the Security Council approves her appointment, Ms Del Ponte will replace Louise Arbour, who is leaving the post to join Canada's Supreme Court.

Mr Annan is also backing another investigation into events in Kosovo, the Swedish Government said.

Stockholm has proposed setting up a 12 member commission to investigate the Kosovo crisis before, during and after the war, and analyse the war's effects on the "victimisation and driving out" of people.

The commission will be headed by Richard Goldstone, a former UN War Crimes Tribunal prosecutor, who also led an inquiry into apartheid-era political violence in South Africa.

Hopes for government

UN officials said on Friday they hoped that the moderate ethnic Albanian leader, Ibrahim Rugova, would attend a session of the transitional council in 10 day's time.

The UN said that Mr Rugova made a promise to attend during a meeting with his chief rival, Hashim Thaci of the KLA, last Wednesday.

Relevant Stories

Milosevic hits back (06 Aug 99 | Europe)
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Montenegro's plan to abolish Yugoslavia (05 Aug 99 | Europe)
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Internet Links

Kosovo Crisis Centre
Serbian Ministry of Information
Nato
United Nations in Kosovo (Unmik)

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