Pristina (Serbia): Kosovo's voters increasingly anxious to gain statehood strongly backed a former rebel leader's party in the parliamentary election, according to an unofficial tally by independent observers.

With more than a third of the votes counted yesterday, the Democracy in Action coalition of monitoring groups said Hashim Thaci s Democratic Party of Kosovo was leading with 35 per cent. The League of Democratic Kosovo, traditionally the province's largest political bloc, was trailing with 23 per cent.

Thaci told The Associated Press earlier in the day that if he becomes prime minister, Kosovo s leadership will declare independence from Serbia after December 10 -- the deadline for international mediators to report back to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on efforts to resolve the dispute over Kosovo s future status. "Immediately after December 10,Kosovo s institutions will declare the independence of Kosovo," said Thaci, 39,a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought Serb forces in the 1998-1999 war.

Decisions on Kosovo s status are made through a forum of top ethnic Albanian leaders, who include the province's prime minister as well as opposition politicians. However, any declaration of independence has to be formally endorsed by the province s parliament. Some of Kosovo s leaders have recently sought to move back from promises for an immediate declaration of independence if no deal is reached by the deadline. Instead, they are saying Kosovo will wait until after the mediators report is delivered before considering when a declaration of independence might be made.

Source : PTI