TIRANA A leader of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians has criticized his colleagues in the disputed Yugoslav province for relying too heavily on the West to back their struggle with Belgrade. Bujar Bukoshi, who went into exile in Germany in 1992 after becoming prime minister of the self-styled Kosovo Republic, said the fate of the province lay in the hands of ethnic Albanians, an Albanian magazine reported on Monday. He said Kosovo politicians were naive to expect the West to intervene decisively in their campaign and any solution short of independence would be unacceptable.

The west is not a monolith... some support us more, some less, Bukoshi was quoted by the weekly magazine Klan as saying from London. At a meeting of the Contact Group in Rome last week, the United States and its European allies, except for Russia, decided to freeze Yugoslavia's assets abroad. They also threatened further moves against Belgrade unless there was progress by May 9 on opening autonomy talks with leaders of Kosovo Albanians, who outnumber Serbs in the province by nine to one.

Serbia abolished Kosovo's autonomy in 1989, prompting the Albanians to set up their own parallel institutions. Some 150 people have been killed in Kosovo since February in clashes between Albanian separatists and Serbian security forces. The situation in Kosovo was not yet catastrophic, Bukoshi said. He added the outlook was poor given that Serbia was not interested in diffusing the tension.

Our priority is to avoid a conflict but we should not be blind to what is happening in front of us, he said. Albania is the weakest state in the region. It is gradually picking itself up after all the destruction (last year) but at the moment it cannot assist Kosovo more. (Reuter)