NATO to cut down its force in Kosovo by half

The mainly Nato peacekeeping force deployed in Kosovo is to be halved from around 10,000 to 5,000 soldiers over the next few months.

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the security situation had improved and local institutions were increasingly able to assume security tasks.

At the end of its war with Serbia in 1999, Nato had 50,000 soldiers in the Serbian province.

Sporadic clashes continue between ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs.