At a ceremony marking the day KFOR entered Kosovo four years ago, following the end of NATO bombing campaign against the forces of then president Slobodan Milosevic, General Fabio Mini said the four issues were the main problems plaguing the UN-administered province.

"All and each one of them affect political life.... They hamper the ability of the institutions to work freely and to work for the people. They constitute a large security problem," Mini said.

The ceremony, held at KFOR headquarters in the Kosovar capital Pristina, was attended by the top UN official in the province, German diplomat Michael Steiner, Kosovo's president Ibrahim Rugova and NATO's top man for southern Europe, admiral Gregory Johnson.

On June 12, 1999 the first of some 50,000 NATO-led peacekeepers entered Kosovo after the alliance bombed Milosevic's troops in response to the brutal repression of the province's majority ethnic Albanians.

The UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has struggled to build a multi-ethnic society and reconcile the province's estranged Albanian and Serb communities.

However, violence has continued even with KFOR presence, with revenge attacks by ethnic Albanian extremists on the Serb minority, seen as score-settling after years of oppression.

More than 200,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians have fled the province in the past four years. The remaining 80,000 live in enclaves heavily guarded by NATO soldiers.

Dozens of Serbs have been killed and scores injured in ethnically-motivated attacks over the same period.

Steiner said the goal for the ethnic communities to live together would remain the aim of the international community.

"We were here to defend the idea of multi-ethnicity and that is still our aim," Steiner said.

Kosovo has an elected parliament and the government, although the UN mission and Steiner himself -- whose actions are governed by the UN Security Council resolution 1244 --hold most decision-making powers.

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