Below is an article published by People’s Daily Online:

Albanian President Alfred Moisiu on Tuesday sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, asking the world body to declare independence for Kosovo when the issue moves to the Security Council.

Moisiu said that the coming UN decision on the final status of the province should reflect the wishes of the Albanian majority in Kosovo as well as the efforts by the international community for ensuring a peaceful and stable Balkan region.

"We are convinced that, like other states in the Western Balkans, Kosovo and Serbia should be two independent states, with their own future in the EU and the NATO," he said in the letter.

Kosovo has been run by the UN and NATO since 1999. After a year of shuttle diplomacy and direct Serb-Albanian talks, a plan about the province's future had been hatched out. The UN mediator Martti Ahtisaari will hand it over in Belgrade and Pristina on February 2.

Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population, are demanding independence, while Serbia and the Serbs in Kosovo want it to remain inside Serbia.

Albania has been the strongest supporter of Kosovo' independence, though it says that it has no territorial ambitions over the province.