Serb Group Agrees to Join Kosovo Government

A Serbian coalition has agreed to participate in Kosovo’s government after reaching a compromise with the province’s U.N. administrators.

Parties representing ethnic Serbs, a minority in Kosovo, boycotted the province’s new government because they were given control only of the Agriculture Ministry. The coalition demanded that it also be allowed to run the ministry overseeing the return of Serbian refugees.

Michael Steiner, chief U.N. administrator for the province, had insisted that refugee return was part of the U.N. mandate, but he compromised by agreeing to accept a Serb-appointed advisor.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic.