Albania hopes for Kosovo reassurance from Bush

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

TIRANA, June 10 (Reuters) US President George W Bush today visits Albania which hopes to receive reassuring words on backing for its NATO membership bid and the future independence of breakaway Kosovo.

The capital Tirana was festooned with US flags, welcome banners and huge posters of a smiling Bush.

On the penultimate stop in his eight-day European tour there will be none of the protests that greeted his visits to Germany and Italy, only a nation welcoming him with open arms.

During the seven-hour visit, starting at 1330 hrs IST, Bush will get Albania's highest medal, a street named after him, his picture on commemorative stamps, and an enthusiastic welcome by hundreds of thousands of people.

''The historic visit of President Bush comes at a moment when our bilateral relations are at the highest peak, when Albania is seriously working to receive an invitation for membership by ...

NATO and at a key moment for the settlement of Kosovo's final status,'' Albanian Foreign Minister Lulzim Basha said.

Albanians have been enthusiastic about the West since the collapse of the isolationist Stalinist regime in 1990.

Their good relations with the United States were cemented in 1999, when then president Bill Clinton pushed for intervention in Kosovo, Serbia's breakaway province with an ethnic Albanian majority.

NATO expelled Serb troops accused of killing civilians in a war with separatists, and the United Nations took over.

The United States is the strongest backer of a UN plan to make Kosovo independent this year, a move blocked by Russia, a Serbian ally.

During his visit to Italy yesterday, Bush said the United Nations Security Council must act on the plan now.

The Albanians hope for even stronger words, and there is persistent speculation, constantly denied, he might fly over to the province, a helicopter ride away, for a surprise visit to reassure Kosovo's 90-per cent Albanian majority of US support for their independence.

SNIPERS Albania sees Bush's visit, the first by a US president, as reward for its support over Afghanistan and Iraq, where Albania has a small contingent, and for giving refuge to some former Guantanamo detainees who cannot return to their home countries.

Albanians think the visit could affect US policy on Kosovo, and want to make sure Bush has no doubts about their loyalty.

Parliament authorised the entry of more than 500 US Marines into Albania, and no Albanian forces will be allowed to carry guns near the president.

Manholes along Tirana's main road, where he will pass, have been welded shut, and media reported that Arab nationals were under surveillance by the secret service.

A Stalinist-era hall was being remodelled for the visit, with bathrooms re-done with luxury furnishings.

In a village he is due to visit, high profile locals -- the barber and the baker -- were competing on who will give him the best present, which could see Bush go home with a lute, the helmet of Albania's national hero Skanderbeg and silverware.

One in three of Albania's 3.3 million people said they wanted to see him, leading police to issue a public appeal for citizens not to come out on balconies, windows or terraces so as not to alarm US snipers.

REUTERS SG VV1219

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