(BRUSSELS) - A planned European Union mission to Kosovo will not be deployed until at least February so as not to interfere with Serbia's presidential vote, current EU president Slovenia said Monday.

"It is clear that no decision will be taken before February," said Slovenian spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic, whose country took over the EU's rotating presidency this month.

"The idea is not to intervene in the current situation in Serbia," which will hold the first round of presidential elections January 20.

Serbia strongly opposes granting independence to its breakaway province of Kosovo, which has a largely ethnic Albanian population and has been run by the United Nations since 1999.

Last month European leaders agreed that they would send a major police and civilian mission to Kosovo -- some 1,800 personnel in all -- to be deployed under a UN proposal to grant Kosovo "supervised independence" in the event that, as widely predicted, the province's leaders announce independence in the near future.

The next meeting of EU foreign ministers, which could give the green light for the mission to go ahead, will take place on January 28 -- between the two rounds of Serb voting set for January 20 and February 18.

Most European countries support independence for Kosovo and will be hoping Serbia's pro-European president Boris Tadic will be re-elected rather than watch ultranationalist Tomislav Nikolic carry the vote.

In order to prevent Serbia from turning away from Europe, the EU nations also want to see Belgrade sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement -- a first step to possible EU membership for Balkan nations -- with the bloc as soon as possible.

EU president Slovenia still hopes this can be done at the February 28 ministers meeting but Belgium and the Netherlands remain unconvinced, arguing Belgrade has failed to cooperate fully with the UN war crimes tribunal.

In particular, they want all remaining war crimes suspects, chief among them former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, handed over to the UN court in The Hague ahead of signing any association agreement.

The UN has run Kosovo since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Belgrade's forces waging a brutal crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians who make up 90 percent of the population.

European diplomats believe Kosovo's leader will declare independence soon after the Serbian presidential vote.

Serbia is backed by Russian in its opposition to an independent Kosovo.

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