By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Kosovo will induct its own army on Wednesday, angering Serbs who do not recognise the state that declared independence from Belgrade less than a year ago. "At a time when Kosovo remains a tinder-box, when no one trusts Kosovo's so-called state bodies, the creation of such a force can only worsen the situation," Goran Bogdanovic, Serbia's Minister for Kosovo, told Serbia's B92 radio station. Kosovo declared independence in February, incurring the wrath of neighbouring Serbia which still considers the majority-Albanian territory in the Balkans part of Serbia. Many commanders in the new Kosovo Security Force are veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Serb forces trying to crush the separatist insurgency in Kosovo in 1998-99. Belgrade, and the Serb minority of about 120,000 among two million Albanians in Kosovo, see the new force as the continuation of that fight. The multiethnic force will have 2,500 personnel and 800 reservists, but it will be some years before it will be fully operational. The KSF will be lightly armed and initially will take on tasks such as crisis response, explosive ordinance disposal and civil protection. "The Kosovo Security Force (KSF) will be a multiethnic force and will serve the country and all of its people," Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci told a news conference on Tuesday. The new force will replace the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), a 3,500-strong civil protection force that was also composed mainly of former KLA guerrillas. Serb leaders in Kosovo and Serbia have asked Kosovo Serbs not to join the force. Countries that have recognized Kosovo have pledged to help the new force, which will be trained and overseen by 15,000 NATO peacekeepers. NATO has said the force will not be an army, nor will it be expected to take on military tasks. Under NATO monitors, hundreds of ethnic Albanians gathered early on Tuesday morning at a training centre in Pristina to learn whether they had passed an exam to join the new force. Xhavit Sadrijaj is a lieutenant-colonel who served in the Yugoslav Army, later fought for the KLA against Serb forces and after the war was in the Kosovo Protection Corps. "Even when we were trained and served in another (Yugoslav) army, our bodies and souls were allied with our country. Today, I am so delighted to be a member of Kosovo's army," said Sadrijaj, who passed the test. (Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade; editing by Adam Tanner and Tim Pearce)
