(4 Feb 2008)
Pristina, Kosovo
1. Exterior of Kosovo government building
2. Wide of Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci (right of picture) seated with other officials
3. Close of Thaci
4. Thaci walking into news conference
5. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) Hashim Thaci, Prime Minister of Kosovo:
"It's good news that Serbia or let me say the people of Serbia chose to look ahead and not to the past for their future. So I'm expecting cooperation in the future as two independent countries having our top priority looking towards the euro-Atlantic process."
6. Close-up of press
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hashim Thaci, Prime Minister of Kosovo:
"Kosovo is ready today to proclaim independence. We finished everything what we needed to work for that and it is our homework to proclaim independence. Now its time for decision. Kosovo is ready. Now it's time for recognition from US and EU."
(Question from reporter (English): So when will you announce your Independence?)
"Very soon, in next few days."
8. Cutaway of camera
9. Thaci walking away
Decane, Kosovo
10. Exterior of Serb Orthodox church
11. Various of Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobadan Samardzic walking around church with priest
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Slobadan Samardzic, Serbian Minister for Kosovo:
"Serbia will react to that. Serbia will warn UNESCO and international community that this was not a single case, that this has been happening continuously and that this is in fact a godless intention."
13. Samardzic outside church
Moscow, Russia
14. Deputy Director of the US and Canada Institute Viktor Kremenyuk in his office
15. Cutaways books
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Viktor Kremenyuk, Deputy Director of the US and Canada Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences:
"We are not against the independence of Kosovo. We are against the way this independence may be declared. We say that the independence of Kosovo should be the result of the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina."
17. Cutaway of photo
STORYLINE:
Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci congratulated newly elected Serbian President Boris Tadic on Monday, saying he was pleased Serbians had chosen to leave the past behind them.
"It's good news that Serbia or let me say the people of Serbia chose to look ahead and not to the past for their future. So I'm expecting cooperation in the future as two independent countries," Thaci said.
He confirmed that Kosovo would go ahead with plans to declare independence from Serbia "very soon" saying they had made all the necessary preparations.
Tadic edged Tomislav Nikolic, an ultranationalist ally of former President Slobodan Milosevic, by a narrow margin in Sunday's election.
The state electoral commission and independent vote monitors said that Tadic won about 51 percent, while Nikolic had 47 percent in the closely contested race.
The remaining ballots were invalid.
Tadic's Democratic Party played a key role in the ouster of Milosevic in 2000.
The soft-spoken party leader first became the president in 2004, beating Nikolic in another runoff election.
Nikolic, deputy leader of the Serbian Radical Party, served as a deputy prime minister during Milosevic's 1998-99 war in Kosovo, when NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days to stop his brutal crackdown against the province's separatists.
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since the war.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders said they would declare independence days after the Serbian runoff, no matter who won, and they expected most EU countries and the US to follow up with quick recognition.
Serbia's historic ally Russia has rejected the notion of Kosovo's independence.

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