Kosovo lawmakers flee teargas in chamber for third time

PRISTINA (Reuters) - An opposition politician in Kosovo released teargas in parliament on Friday, sending lawmakers rushing from the debating chamber in the third such incident in two weeks.

The opposition is protesting against a European Union-brokered agreement with Serbia, from which Kosovo declared independence in 2008, and a separate accord demarcating Kosovo's border with Montenegro.

"We will continue to resist until these two agreements are cancelled," Donika Kada Bujupi of the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo told reporters after letting off a teargas canister in the chamber.

The speaker of parliament suspended proceedings as lawmakers fled the stinging gas. The session was due to continue later, but the opposition parties said they would try to stop it again.

It was the third time they had released tear gas in parliament, and the second time Bujupi herself had done so. Police have summoned her for an interview but she has refused to go.

The opposition says the agreement with Serbia, which grants ethnic Serbs in Kosovo greater local powers and the possibility of funding from Belgrade, represents a threat to the small country's independence.

Hundreds of opposition protesters gathered outside as police in riot gear surrounded the parliament and government buildings.

IMF, U.S. CONCERN

The head of a visiting mission from the International Monetary Fund, Jacques Miniane, said the IMF was concerned at the developments in parliament and that they would damage investors? confidence.

?This is delaying the approval of important legislation, some of which is critical to the government?s economic reform agenda and to the viability of Kosovo?s Fund-supported programme,? Miniane said.

In June Kosovo reached a deal with the IMF for a 185 million euro ($204 million) stand-by deal.

The Unites States, the biggest supporter of the young state, has said recent developments will hurt Kosovo's ambition to join the European Union.

?To those people who bring weapons into the Kosovo assembly ... I have a message: you are hurting Kosovo?s economy, you are risking isolating Kosovo from the Euro-Atlantic community,? U.S. Ambassador Greg Delawie said on Thursday.

Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999, when NATO bombed Serb targets for 11 weeks to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian forces trying to crush a two-year guerrilla insurgency.

After almost a decade as a ward of the United Nations, the majority-Albanian territory declared independence in 2008 and has been recognised by more than 100 countries, including the major Western powers, but not by Serbia or its big-power ally Russia.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)