Kosovo will not consider any land swap with Serbia along ethnic lines to ease tensions in the region as such a move could have wider negative consequences, its prime minister said on Saturday. "It is a very bad idea," Hashim Thaci told Reuters on the sidelines of an international conference. "My intention is not to change borders, but integrate in Euro-Atlantic structures." "If we tolerate a change of the borders anywhere, then there will be a chain effect and consequences for the whole region." Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population, declared independence two years ago. Yet its authority does not extend to the territory north of the river running through Mitrovica, where Serbs are in the majority. Some analysts and diplomats have suggested that Serbia trade part of its southern Presevo Valley bordering Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up the majority, for north Mitrovica. "The consequences (of a swap) would be in Macedonia, in Kosovo, in Serbia itself, in Montenegro and Bosnia. Every state in the region has its own Mitrovica," said Thaci, a former guerrilla commander in Kosovo's liberation war. -- SPA
