BRUSSELS (AFP) — US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Saturday that NATO's air attack on former Yugoslavia a decade ago was "the right thing to do" and had improved the lives of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs.

Speaking at the Brussels Forum conference, Holbrooke -- former envoy to the Balkans -- recalled how 10 years ago this week he had given the final ultimatum to former strongman Slobodan Milosevic to comply or face air strikes.

"I look back on it and I think that sometimes it's necessary to use force, and the result was good in the end," the new US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan told reporters.

"The people of Kosovo are better off than they were as part of Serbia, and Serbia is better off facing the future rather than working back to a mythic past," he said.

"I look back on that extraordinary last meeting with Milosevic, with a feeling that what we did was necessary and the right thing to do."

NATO launched its bombing campaign in 1999 to halt a violent crackdown on separatist Kosovo Albanians by forces loyal to Milosevic, who later died in a prison in the Netherlands before he could be tried for war crimes.

Kosovo proclaimed unilateral independence from Serbia in February 2008.

It is now recognised by 56 countries including the United States and 22 of the European Union's 27 member states. Serbia is backed by its old ally Russia in its opposition to the move.