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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-17 22:58

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci (L) and Speaker of Parliament Jakup Krasniqi meet in Pristina February 17, 2008. Thaci summoned parliament on Sunday to a special session that voted and declared the province's independence from Serbia. [Agencies]

PRISTINA - Kosovo's parliament unanimously approved the province's historic declaration of independence from Serbia on Sunday, a move that is backed by the US and some European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia.

"Kosovo is a republic -- an independent, democratic and sovereign state," parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi said as the chamber burst into applause.

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Serbia responded immediately by calling its mainly Albanian breakaway province a false state and condemning the United States for supporting it.

The lawmakers voted 109-0 to adopt the declaration. Eleven ethnic minority deputies, including Serbs, were absent.

"Deputies on February 17 expressed their will to declare Kosovo an independent, sovereign and democratic state," he said.

Across the capital, Pristina, a snow-covered city, revelers fired guns into the air, waved red and black Albanian flags and honked car horns in jubilation at the birth of the world's newest country.

Earlier, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci called on the parliament of Kosovo on Sunday to adopt a declaration of independence from Serbia.

"We the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state," Thaci told the assembly.

"This declaration reflects the will of the people," he said.

On the eve of the declaration, the NATO-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force -- with 17,000 troops from 34 nations -- said it would intervene robustly to prevent any inter-ethnic violence.

Kosovo is a cultural heartland of Serbia. But most of Kosovo's 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, who have been impatient with delays of the proclamation of independence.

Kosovo has been under UN administration since mid-1999, after NATO launched airstrikes to drive out Serbian forces from the province.

In April 2007, UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari recommended the proposed internationally supervised independence for Kosovo.

The Ahtisaari plan is supported by the United States and the European Union, but opposed by Serbia and Russia.

Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has warned that Kosovo independence would set a dangerous precedent for regions across the world where there are ethnic tensions.

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