As negotiations on Kosovo's "final status" reached their predicted political stalemate Dec. 10, a top commander in NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) said his troops were prepared for any potential conflict in the breakaway province.

The commander of the Guard-led Multinational Task Force East (MNTF-E) said the mood in Kosovo was "anxious" even before talks led by the United States, the European Union and Russia ended in disagreement.

Provincial leaders of the 90-percent ethnic Albanian enclave in southern Serbia are expected to unilaterally declare Kosovo's independence early this year.

"When the declaration of independence comes, we will be prepared to act against any kind of activity," said Brig. Gen. John E. Davoren, MNTF-E commander.

"We are impartial," he said. "It doesn't matter whether you're a Kosovar Albanian or a Kosovo Serbian-if you engage in violence, then we as members of Kosovo Force are going to have to act against you."

Kosovo has been under UN administration and policed by 16,000 NATO peacekeepers since a 1999 U.S.-led bombing campaign expelled the Serb army and prevented "ethnic cleansing" of the region's Albanians.

Davoren and the 35 th Infantry Division took command of MNTF-E Nov. 2. Also known as Task Force Falcon, MNTF-E is one of five multinational task forces that comprise KFOR.

MNTF-E includes troops from seven nations. Its 1,400 personnel include Guard soldiers from 23 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; however, most are from the Kansas and Missouri Guard.

The force is responsible for more than 60 miles of administrative "boundary lines," the official name for the UNmandated demarcation separating Kosovo and Serbia.

It also oversees roughly 50 miles of Kosovo-Macedonia border to the south, where incidents between ethnic Albanians and law officers in Macedonia late last year have stirred controversy, Davoren said.

The brushes near Kosovo's border come in the midst of increasingly harsh political rhetoric from the Serb government in Belgrade and growing concern over reports in Kosovo's news media of paramilitary activity along Kosovo's boundaries.

Though largely autonomous, Kosovo remains under the sovereignty of Belgrade, which has refused to relinquish the province.

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