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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, Sept. 7 (UPI) NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana has discussed with ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo a proposal to transform the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) into a local police force, independent Belgrade media reported.
Solana met with Albanian leaders during his one-day visit to Kosovo on Monday.
A framework agreement on the force to be named Kosovo Corps has already been reached in talks between the KFOR commander, Gen. Michael Jackson, and the military commander of the KLA, Agim Ceku two weeks before the Sept. 19 KLA demilitarization deadline, according to KFOR sources quoted by the media.
The Kosovo Corps would number 3,000 armed men, a helicopter unit, a rapid reaction unit and security forces, the sources said.
The U.N. Security Council must approve setting up the Corps. Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Abdeev, on a three-day visit to Yugoslavia, has already expressed his objection to the force.
In another development, 200 cadets of a police academy established by the United Nations civilian mission in Vucitrn, most of them ethnic Albanian, began their training for a new police force in the province today, Belgrade Radio B2-92 reported.
Two Serb cadets were dropped from the list after being accused by their colleagues of committing war crimes, according to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe spokesman Steve Bennet.
In a welcoming address to the cadets, the U.N. police commissioner, Sven Federicson, called for reconciliation between ethnic groups so that they could fulfil their tasks in the future, B2-92 radio said.