Pristina  - A grenade slammed into the barracks of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) Thursday night, a day after the fledgling army of the volatile new country was formed.

Police in Pristina said nobody was injured in the explosion in the attack in Pec, a town in western Kosovo. A grenade, apparently fired from a launcher, hit the roof of one of the KSF buildings.

Police did not speculate on the motives for the attack and were still investigating Friday morning.

Pristina - Kosovo's former premier, now opposition leader Ramush Haradinaj Thursday promised to take the authorities to court and force parliamentary elections in
2009, in accordance with a UN- brokered plan.

He said he would file a motion with the upcoming constitutional court to force the polls, in line with a plan hammered out for Kosovo by the United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari.

Ahtisaari's plan was endorsed by Western nations and used as a blueprint for Kosovo's secession from Serbia last year, although the negotiations he mediated collapsed.

Pristina, Kosovo - Kosovo's new multi-ethnic security force will be launched next week, almost a year after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, the government in Pristina announced Friday.

The Kosovo Security Force (KSF) will replace the civilian Kosovo Protection Crops (KPC) and begin its operations on January 21.

"I can confirm that the KSF will officially start its mission on January 21, after the process of deactivation of the KPC ends on January
20," Kosovo Security Minister Fehmi Mujota told reporters in Pristina.

Pristina  - General Sylejman Selimi is to become the first chief of staff of the Kosovo army, according to a decree signed on Saturday by President Fatmir Sejdiuin.

NATO forces will help train the fledging army, which is expected to have a strength of 2,500.

Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac called the formation of the army "unacceptable." Kosovo was a Serbian province under UN administration when it unilaterally declared independence in February.

Pristina - The Nobel Peace Prize went to the right hands, said the premier of Kosovo, which declared independence on guidelines laid by the recipient, Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari.

"The Nobel Peace Prize accorded to President Ahtisaari is a prize given to the right person, to the man ... who contributed so much for global peace and especially for the cause of Kosovo," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Pristina.

Pristina - The mission sent by the European Union to Kosovo to replace a UN administration and help Pristina impose law and order becomes operational Tuesday - amid much uncertainty and some hostility.

Mostly ethnic Albanian Kosovo declared independence from Serbia last February 17, eight years after UN took over instead of the Belgrade authorities, which were ousted by NATO.

Now the EU mission, the Eulex, is to start taking over from the UN in policing, customs and justice, though it remains unclear how some 2,000 officials are to function within a complex and still unrefined mandate.