By Fatos Bytyci
PRISTINA, Serbia (Reuters) - Kosovo said Westernrecognition of its independence was coming any minute onMonday, but the first EU decision went against the new republicas Spain said "no".
"We expect to be recognised by the first countries anyminute," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci told an open meeting ofhis cabinet a day after the breakaway majority Albanianterritory declared independence from Serbia.
Most of the European Union's 27 members and the UnitedStates are ready to recognise Kosovo. But as EU foreignministers met in Brussels to confer, Spain said it had made upits mind not to do so.
"The government of Spain will not recognise the unilateralact proclaimed yesterday by the assembly of Kosovo," ForeignMinister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters.
"We will not recognise because we consider ... this doesnot respect international law," said the minister, whosecountry is grappling with separatist movements of its own.
Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania have alsoindicated they will not recognise.
But Kosovo is confident that London, Paris, Berlin, Rome,Washington and up to 100 other governments will accept its newstatus as the world's 193rd country, the sixth to be createdfrom the collapse of Yugoslavia.
The EU appealed for calm in the Balkans and unity in Europeas ministers met, after Serbian nationalist protesters stonedWestern embassies in the Serbian capital in protest at thedeclaration from a region they consider a Serbian heartland.
"BETTER THAN EXPECTED"
"The EU has already decided to send a mission, a mission ofstability, a mission of rule of law. It should contribute tothe stability of the Balkans," EU foreign policy chief JavierSolana told reporters.
Despite differences over recognition, the EU agreed onSaturday to send some 2,000 police, justice and civiladministrators to supervise Kosovo and help build institutions.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said independencewas "a great success for Europe" and not a defeat for Serbia,which had the prospect of joining the European Union.
"Don't take things tragically. It was very expected andthings are going even better than expected," said Kouchner whowas the first U.N. governor of Kosovo after 1999 and witnessedits first tense year under NATO and U.N. control.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, asked aboutBelgrade's alliance with Moscow to resist Kosovo'sindependence, he said: "It is very, very important that Serbiaknows it is not going to be part of Russia but part of Europe."
Kosovo's 2 million Albanians took it easy on Monday after aweekend of wild celebrations of the declaration of independencefor their poor, landlocked territory.
At an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council onSunday, Western powers resisted a bid by Serbia's ally Russiato block Kosovo's independence, and said NATO and the EU wouldtake responsibility for the region's stability.
Thaci pledged that the new Kosovo would be a country of"all its citizens", a gesture to the 120,000 Serbs still livinghere.
But Serbia and Russia swept that aside.
"We'll strongly warn against any attempts at repressivemeasures should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with thisunilateral proclamation of independence," Russia's U.N.ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said in New York.
Serbs in Kosovo, led by the Serb-dominated north and withthe full backing of Belgrade, reject the territory's secession,reinforcing an ethnic partition that NATO and the UnitedNations have failed to erase since the 1998-99 war.
Protests were called for midday on Monday (11 a.m. Britishtime) in Serb towns in Kosovo. A U.N. car was torched overnightin the northern Serb town of Zubin Potok, witnesses said.
Hand grenades were lobbed at EU and U.N. buildings in theSerb stronghold of Mitrovica within hours of the declaration.
(Additional reporting by Mark John, Ingrid Melander,Patrick Worsnip, Paul Taylor; Writing by Douglas Hamilton;Editing by Richard Meares)
