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PRISTINA, Yugoslavia-- Kosovo Serb representatives have set up a new political organization in the province in an attempt to counter hostility from majority ethnic Albanians.
But delegates meeting Sunday in the 14th-century Serb monastery of Gracanica dropped earlier plans to set up a Serb Protection Force, a much-debated counterweight to the mostly ethnic Albanian Kosovo Protection Force.
International peacekeepers overseeing the administration of Kosovo say the Albanian protection force is only meant to assist in civil emergencies and other nonmilitary duties. But Serbs fear the group, which includes members of the banned Kosovo Liberation Army, could turn violent.
There was no immediate reaction from international officials. But the United Nations and the international peacekeeping force were unlikely to accept the newly established Serb National Council if its founders want it to function as a governmental-type body.
The U.N. mission has taken over all civilian functions in the volatile southern Serbian province since international peacekeepers arrived in June. The operation followed the departure of Serb-led forces under an accord that ended NATO's 78-day bombing campaign.
The Serb National Council consists of 49 delegates representing remaining Serb enclaves in Kosovo. Some delegates had difficulty reaching Gracanica, six miles south of Pristina, because of the precarious security situation.
Despite the presence of tens of thousands of international peacekeepers, ethnic Albanians have attacked or threatened Kosovo's Serb minority in retaliation for years of harsh Serbian rule.
A local spiritual leader, Bishop Artemije of the Serb Orthodox Church, was elected head of the council.
A constituent declaration said the council's purpose was to "protect remaining Serbs in Kosovo and help create conditions for the return of Serbs who were forced out" of the province. It said it will work "in accordance with U.N. resolutions" on Kosovo.
The council will have subcommittees for economy, security, information and other fields.
The chief secular leader of Kosovo Serbs, Momcilo Trajkovic, was appointed head of the Council's Executive Board.
There are between 20,000 and 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo, down from 200,000 before the war that erupted last year between Serb government troops and Kosovo's pro-independence ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army.
International officials in Kosovo have sought to develop multiethnic governing bodies as a way to ensure stability and democracy, but ethnic divisions persist.