U.S. to pledge $400 million Kosovo aid

The donors conference aims to strengthen the government ofthe former Serbian province, which declared independence inFebruary, nine years after NATO bombing drove out Serb forcesbecause of their ruthless tactics against an insurgency.

"The United States is going to throw in $400 million overthe next four years," Assistant Secretary of State Dan Friedtold reporters of the U.S. pledge at the donors conference tobe held in Brussels on July 11.

"We expect total pledges of well over $1 billion which will... help the Kosovar government get off to a good start," headded.

Kosovo, whose population is 90 percent ethnic Albanian,declared independence on February 17 after nine years underU.N. administration and is still in the process of establishingits governing institutions.

Some of its ethnic Serb minority, supported by Serbia andRussia, bitterly opposed independence but the declaration hasproduced relatively little violence in the latest step in thetortuous break-up of Serb-dominated Yugoslavia over the lasttwo decades.

The Bush administration requested the bulk of its pledgefrom the U.S. Congress more than a year ago, well before Kosovodeclared independence, out of a certainty that the region wouldneed financial help whenever it declared independence.

A U.S. official who asked not to be named said that the ofthe $400 million U.S. pledge, Congress has already approvedabout $291 million.

He said the money will go toward debt relief to help Kosovowhen it assumes part of Serbia's sovereign debt.

It will also help to establish governing institutions suchas the police, the judiciary and government ministries and tospur economic growth through job creation programs, he said.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; editing by Jackie Frank)