Jun 11, 2009, 10:51 GMT
Brussels - NATO has maintained a major troop presence in Kosovo since the close of the 1999 bombing campaign with which it ended the ethnic fighting in the former Serbian province.
NATO defence ministers on Thursday were set to scale down the mission in what alliance officials call the 'beginning of the end of the Balkan wars.'
The force, known as KFOR, was sent to Kosovo under United Nations mandate in 1999 to disarm the province's ethnic militias and prevent any outbreak of violence between Serbs and Albanians. It originally consisted of some 50,000 men.
Over the last decade, the force has been scaled back to a current strength of 13,829 troops from 25 NATO states - all its members except Iceland and newcomers Albania and Croatia - and from Armenia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Morocco, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Over the same period, KFOR has evolved from its peacekeeping and disarmament role, playing a part in setting up and training the lightly-armed Kosovo Security Force.
Kosovo declared independence in February 2008. NATO officials say that there have been so few ethnic clashes since then that it is time to cut KFOR down in size and move to a 'deterrent presence' backing up civilian security services.
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