The top United Nations official in Kosovo said today the UN mission there had entered “what is perhaps its most critical and delicate phase” with the transference of competencies to local provisional institutions.

A senior United Nations official today urged the Security Council to reject calls to end the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), stating that the mission has, and will continue to encourage dialogue and multi-ethnicity in the province, which still has some way to go in establishing independent functioning institutions.

Although an important step in the process towards transferring further responsibilities from the United Nations to local authorities had been launched last three months ago, Kosovo still has some way to go in establishing representative and functioning institutes, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a report issued today.

Ethnic minorities in Kosovo continue to face security problems and lack access to basic services despite the general improvement of the situation in that province, a joint assessment by the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has revealed.