BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP):

A day before Kosovo is expected to declare independence, European Union (EU) nations agreed yesterday to send a 1,800-strong mission to Kosovo to help the fledgling state build its police force and judiciary.

The mission will include 700 police officers, as well as judges, prosecutors and other legal experts, to help the ethnic Albanian leadership with security, legal and customs issues after Kosovo breaks away from Serbia.

sharply condemned

In Belgrade, Serbia's government sharply condemned the decision by the 27-nation bloc, denouncing it as "shameful". The mission "effectively recognises the independence of Kosovo, which remains an inalienable part of Serbia," said Slobodan Samardzic, the Cabinet minister for Kosovo.

Hundreds of Serb nationalists demonstrated yesterday outside the embassy of Slovenia, the country currently holding the rotating EU presidency.

Ethnic Albanian leaders in Kosovo - a Serbian province that is more than 90 per cent ethnic Albanian - are expected to declare independence unilaterally over the objections of Serbia, which has pushed to retain the region considered its historic heartland.

The United States and most EU nations, including Britain, France and Germany, are expected to recognise Kosovo's sovereignty.

However, Russia and some EU nations, including Spain, Romania and Greece, back Serbia in opposing Kosovo's move to independence, which has been closely orchestrated with EU and US officials.

Sheribane Abazi, a 45-year-old geologist, gathered all the children who were born into her extended family since the conflict so she could teach them about Kosovo's recent history.

"I am so happy this is finally happening. We have waited for centuries for this moment," she said. "Without the Jashari family, there would be no independence."

NATO to intervene

The fighting ultimately led NATO to intervene militarily to stop Serb forces' brutal onslaught on ethnic Albanians. Some 10,000 people died during the 1998-99 war, and nearly one million others were driven from their homes.

Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population. The rest are minority Serbs who oppose Kosovo's independence and insist the province should remain under Belgrade's control.