January 25, 2007 11:55 AM

PRISTINA, Serbia-Kosovo's Prime Minister Agim Ceku said Thursday he believes the U.N. proposal outlining the province's future status will propose independence for Kosovo.

Chief U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari plans to disclose recommendations on Kosovo's future to Western governments and Russia on Friday. He will then make his offer known to ethnic Albanians and Serbs a week later, on Feb. 2, during a visit to Serbia's capital Belgrade and the provincial capital Pristina.

Ahtisaari has shared the proposal with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a meeting in Paris, his office said.

"I strongly believe that Ahtisaari will propose independence for Kosovo and will propose a concrete mechanism and procedures to guarantee all the rights of the communities that live in Kosovo," Ceku said.

"After his proposal the minorities, namely Serbs, will have no reason to refuse Kosovo's independence or to refuse to live in an independent Kosovo," he added.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority is pushing for independence from Serbia, while Serbian leaders and the Serb minority in the province want it to remain within Serbia's borders. The province has been under U.N. control since mid-1999 and is currently patrolled by a 16,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force.

Ahtisaari said Wednesday his plan for the future of Kosovo focuses on the protection of minority rights and envisages a strong international presence, backed up by NATO's peacekeeping force.

International mediators have held yearlong talks between ethnic Albanian and Serbian leaders on issues such as giving self-rule to Serbs in areas where they form a majority, protect their religious and cultural monuments and offer constitutional guarantees so they are not overruled.

"Not all answers and all words will be included," Torbjorn Sohlstrom, the senior European Union official in the province told The Associated Press. "It will be an essential building block, but this is not the end of the process."

He said that the report was a comprehensive proposal, adding that "one part of it cannot be seen in isolation, it has to be seen as a whole."

"There will be no big surprises," Sohlstrom added.

Diplomats and officials, who agreed to discuss the proposal on condition of anonymity, say that the proposal that will be handed to Belgrade and Pristina will likely not mention the word independence. But, it is likely to give Kosovo some attributes of a sovereign state, such as access to international institutions and provisions for a security force.

They expect the proposal to detail safeguards for Serb minority living in scattered enclaves in Kosovo, allowing for Serbs to have a say in the areas where they live.

The plan also outlines post-status international supervision, with EU's top envoy in Kosovo likely to have veto power over laws and government decisions, and the authority to fire officials who go against the peace deal.

The system would be similar to that which was implemented in Bosnia after the war ended there in 1995.

A Western official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to comment on the proposals, explained the future mission as "light, but robust", a watered down version of the model used in Bosnia.

Those involved in the process have expressed hope that negotiations between both sides could be completed in February and brought to the U.N. Security Council, which will make the final call on Kosovo's future, in March.

There are concerns that Kosovo's future status will potentially provide for a showdown between Russia and United States over Kosovo's future, with Moscow supporting Serb claims to keep the province within Serbia and Americans backing province's independence.

"How long will it take to go through the Security Council is anybody's guess," the official said.