BRUSSELS, Jan 14 (Reuters) - European Union President Slovenia said on Monday the bloc expected to wait until February to launch a police and justice mission to the breakaway province of Kosovo so as not to influence Serb elections. Diplomats told Reuters last week a majority of EU states were pushing to postpone the decision, originally slated for end-January, so as not to hurt the pro-European incumbent in Serbia's presidential vote, whose second round is on Feb. 3. "There is a high probability we will not take the decision until February. The feeling is that it (an earlier move) would interfere with the situation in the region," said a spokeswoman for Slovenia, which holds the EU's rotating presidency. Kosovo is expected to defy Belgrade and Serb ally Russia by making an independence declaration sometime around March. Serb officials have questioned the legality of any future international presence in Kosovo. The deliberations over the timetable for Kosovo's move to independence show the 27-member bloc's desire for pro-EU President Boris Tadic to strengthen his grip on power and to prepare Serb opinion for the painful loss of the province. The EU move to take over policing and other rule of law tasks from the United Nations, which has administered Kosovo since NATO bombs drove out Serb forces in 1999, is the most ambitious security mission undertaken by the bloc. Postponing the move to deploy the 1,800-strong mission will also ensure it does not undermine the signing of an agreement for closer ties with Serbia, which Brussels hopes to stage at a meeting of foreign ministers on Jan. 28 provided Belgrade shows full cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal. EU foreign ministers are due to meet again on Feb. 18 in Brussels and could decide to launch the police and justice mission then. (Reporting by Mark John, editing by David Brunnstrom)
A Croatian trawler, sails out into the Adriatic to catch fish near the island of Brac in this August 6, 2007, file photo. Croatian fishermen worry about what will happen to ...
