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Rugova Elected Kosovo's President VOA News 4 Mar 2002 11:39 UTC 
The Kosovo Assembly has elected veteran ethnic-Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova president of the United Nations-administered Yugoslav province and a rival politician as prime minister.
Monday's vote in the 120-member legislature in the capital, Pristina, followed a power-sharing agreement reached last week by rival ethnic-Albanian parties.
Under the deal, which ended weeks of political wrangling, the presidency went to Mr. Rugova, head of the moderate Democratic League of Kosovo. Bajram Rexhepi, a senior member of a rival group (the Democratic Party of Kosovo) was approved prime minister.
Mr. Rugova's party got the most votes in last November's elections, but failed to win enough legislative seats to govern alone. Under the power-sharing arrangement, the cabinet will include members of two other groups.
The Assembly vote is considered a major step towards self-rule in Kosovo, although the final status of the province remains to be determined.
Majority ethnic-Albanians want independence, but minority Serbs insist the province be re-integrated into Serbia and Yugoslavia. The United Nations has administered Kosovo since July, 1999, when NATO airstrikes forced then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to abandon his crackdown on the ethnic Albanian majority.
Some information for this report provided by Reuters, AP and AFP.
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