UN seeks 'right balance' in Kosovo: new mission chief

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

PRISTINA (AFP) — Italian diplomat Lamberto Zannier, the new chief of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said Friday his goal was to find a right balance between all sides in the newly declared independent state.

"I see the UN especially in this phase as a facilitator, but as the key facilitator," Zannier told reporters a few hours after taking over UNMIK from his predecessor, German diplomat Joachim Ruecker.

Zannier envisioned his mission as "paving the way for the new actors to play their own role."

"I am looking forward to find the right balance in the relationship with all relevant factors... in full respect of (the mission's) own mandate and its own role," he said.

A new constitution went into force last week in Kosovo, an ethnic Albanian majority...