The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Belgrade

The Serbian minister for Kosovo said Friday that his government has information that the province's Albanian leadership will declare independence on Feb. 17.

Slobodan Samardzic said in a statement that Serbia's government has received "relevant information" that Kosovo's government will "illegally declare unilateral independence of Kosovo on Sunday, Feb. 17." He did not specify the source of information.

The Kosovo Albanian leadership has said that it will declare independence from Serbia "in a matter of days," but has never specified the exact date.

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci did not confirm or deny the exact independence day mentioned by Samardzic, but added that Kosovo's split from Serbia was "a done deal."

"I can only confirm today that we have the confirmation from some 100 states which say they are ready to recognize Kosovo's independence," Thaci said in Kosovo's capital Pristina.

Serbia strongly rejects the statehood of Kosovo even though the southern province has not been under its control since NATO's bombing in 1999 to stop a crackdown against the Kosovo Albanian separatists.

Samardzic's statement was issued after a meeting with a senior European Union official, Stefan Lehne, who was in Belgrade to clarify the bloc's plans to send an EU policing and administrative mission to Kosovo.