Brown says premature to send more troops to Balkans

A KFOR vehicle passes by a billboard in the ethnically divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica December 9, 2007. A deadline for a negotiated deal on the fate of the breakaway province expires on Monday, and the Albanian majority says it will declare independence from Serbia within weeks. Text on billboard reads: KFOR provides a safe and secure environment.

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday it was premature to send more troops to the Balkans where Kosovo's plan to declare independence from Serbia has raised fears of regional unrest.

Kosovo Albanians said on Monday they would start immediate talks with Western backers about an independence declaration after a U.N. deadline for agreement on the fate of the breakaway province expired.

Backed by Russia, Serbia opposes independence for its southern, U.N.-run territory. NATO allies with 16,000 troops in Kosovo are concerned about a possible violent backlash by Serbs in Kosovo, and Serbia has raised the possibility that Serbs in neighbouring Bosnia could, in their turn, secede.

"It would be premature to put forces in at this stage," Brown said under questioning in parliament from opposition Conservative leader David Cameron. "There are already forces in Kosovo."

Cameron had asked Brown whether a NATO reserve force should be used to reinforce troops in Bosnia as a precaution.

The EU has around 2,500 troops in Bosnia. Both the Bosnian and Kosovo peace forces have reserves which are intended to back each other up.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said earlier this week that more NATO troops may be needed in Kosovo as it moves towards independence.

Britain was sending the message "loud and clear" to Serbia and its backer Russia that it supported "supervised independence" for Kosovo, Brown said.

"We support the supervised independence of the Kosovan people -- that will be reiterated by the European Council," Brown said, referring to this week's summit of EU leaders.

"I think the message is going out loud and clear to Serbia and Russia that this is the course we wish to take," he said.

Kosovo was a "European responsibility", he said, adding that the EU must make resources available "to match the forces that are already in Kosovo".

The EU is preparing to deploy a 1,600-strong police and justice mission to Kosovo, despite a warning this week from Serb Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica that the move would be "unlawful" and could damage relations with Serbia.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft and Matt Robinson)