Article: Former rebel leader elected Kosovo prime minister, vows independence only weeks away

A former ethnic Albanian rebel leader elected as Kosovo's prime minister vowed that the province is only weeks away from independence and called on Serbia to give up its claim to the territory.

Kosovo's parliament elected Hashim Thaci on Wednesday by a vote of 85-22 to head a coalition government that will try to steer the province through a declaration of independence, a course supported by the United States and some European governments, but fiercely opposed by Serbia and Russia.

"It's an issue of weeks and Kosovo will be an independent, sovereign and democratic country," Thaci told The Associated Press in an interview in his residence in the provincial ...

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