UN and NATO officials said on Wednesday that paramilitary groups could not undermine the security situation in Kosovo as the UN-administered province is to open future status talks, said reports reaching here from Pristina.

Spokesman of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Neeraj Singh said that the threatening statement issued by the self-styled Army for Kosovo Independence would be a daily occurrence during the forthcoming status talks, the official Tanjug news agency reported.

Regardless of threats and other forms of pressure, the Kosovo status will not be decided in the streets or on the Internet, Singh said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday appointed former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari as UN envoy for Kosovo status talks, paving the way for the talks to be opened by the year's end.

However, the talks have been overshadowed by the fears that extremists could use violence to protest the outcome for the ethnically-divided province.

Kosovo's Albanian majority demands for an independent state, while its Serb minority and Belgrade officials want the province remains part of Serbia.

NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR) spokesman Pio Sabetta rejected any possibility that paramilitary groups might endanger security in Kosovo.

He told the press in Pristina that KFOR, UNMIK and Kosovo Police Service were investigating uniformed persons who have been observed in the province recently.

Last week KFOR held an exercise to demonstrate NATO troops' ability to deal quickly with potential violence or other security threats in the province.

Source: Xinhua