Bush urges action on Kosovo's disputed independence

TIRANA, June 10 (Reuters) US President George W Bush said today the United Nations needs to act on independence for the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.

''We need to get moving... and the end result is independence,'' Bush said at a news conference in Albania.

The president said he was ''worried about expectations not being met'' in Kosovo, where 90 per cent of the population are ethnic Albanians demanding independence from Serbia and where NATO leads a peacekeeping force of 17,000 troops.

Russia last Friday rebuffed the West's bid to put a vote on Kosovo independence to the United Nations this month, and Bush said his Kremlin counterpart President Vladimir Putin was still not convinced of Washington's case.

He said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would pursue the issue through diplomacy with Moscow along with America's European allies but ''at some point in time, sooner or later, you have to say enough is enough, Kosovo is independent.'' REUTERS SLD BST1709