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Senior U.N. officials with Secretary-General Kofi Annan on his first visit to Kosovo moved on Wednesday to discount reports that the head of the banned Kosovo Liberation Army would be given major authority in the province.
Reacting to newspaper reports that former KLA leader Hashim Thaci would essentially be made co-adminstrator of Kosovo with U.N. administrator Bernard Kouchner, the officials said the United Nations would remain in sole control of the province.
"I don't think the United Nations is in a position ... to hand over executive power to anyone," said an official in Annan's party, asking for anonymity.
"Elections will decide" which political figures will govern the province, he said.
The U.N. official spoke after Thaci suggested a shakeup in the Kosovo administration following a meeting with Annan, saying an executive group with representatives of all political parties would soon be formed.
Thaci did not elaborate, but the daily Kosova Sot newspaper said Thaci and Kouchner would share decision-making powers and Kouchner would have veto power over decisions by the group.
Any formal move recognizing Thaci's authority would be a reflection of realities -- Thaci remains a powerful and influential figure despite the formal disbandment of his KLA.
But it would infuriate Serbs -- and Thaci's Albanian rivals -- and escalate tensions already high in the province.
Thaci and his rival, Ibrahim Rugova, the head of Kosovo's LDK party, also expressed hope after separate meetings with Annan that security would improve.
And Thaci said he expected a quick solution to the standoff at Orahovac, where ethnic Albanians who claim Russians participated in Serb-led atrocities against them are preventing the deployment of Russian troops with the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force.