Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has announced that Kosovo's parliament will declare independence from Serbia on Sunday. The ethnic Albanian-dominated Serb province has been under United Nations administration since 1999. In practice, Serbian governance in the province is already virtually non-existent.

The declaration of independence is will reportedly be made during a parliamentary session in Kosovo's capital Pristina due to begin at around 3.00 p.m. local time (11 a.m. EST).

Meanwhile, Serbs in Kosovo prepare for the worst. "We are all expecting something difficult and horrible," Bishop Artemije, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, told his fellow Christians at the St Dimitrije church in the north Kosovo town of Mitrovica, according to Reuters. "Our message to you, all Serbs in Kosovo, is to remain in your homes and around your monasteries, regardless of what God allows or our enemies do," he said.

Also, in Belgrade, more than 1,000 people protested with banners, flags and religious icons against the loss of Kosovo, the former cultural, religious and political heart of the Serbian Kingdom.

The United States and most European countries will give quick recognition to the newly declared Kosovo state, while Serbia will allege its independence is null and void as it violates its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Serbia is backed by Russia.

Meanwhile, the EU approved sending a police and justice mission to Kosovo on Friday night. The 2,000-strong force will be headed by retired French Lt Gen Yves de Kermabon, who was commander of the NATO mission in Kosovo in 2004-2005 and is familiar with the situation in the area. Germany and Italy are the biggest contributors to the force which will include police and customs officers, judges and prosecutors.

The NATO peacekeepers force, KFOR, "will react and oppose any provocation that may happen during these days, whether from the Albanian or the Serb side," announced its head, French Lieutenant-General Xavier de Marnhac, quoted by The Washington Post.

Kosovo was initially known as Dardania, an area inhabited by Slavic tribes theoretically under Byzantine vassalage during the second half of the first millennium AD. It eventually became the cultural, religious and political heart of the Serbian Kingdom in the first centuries of the second millennium. However, it was later invaded by the Ottomans who Islamized the area and forced Christians to become Muslims with a combination of threats and incentives.