(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission on Sunday backed the United Nations' authority in Kosovo, agreeing that a move by Serbs there to inaugurate their own assembly is "without legal standing or effect".

Kosovo's Serbs set up their own assembly Saturday in defiance of both the United Nations and the ethnic Albanian majority that proclaimed independence from Serbia four months ago.

The new parliament has officially dubbed itself the Assembly of the Union of Municipalities of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and drafted what it sees as its mandate.

"The holding of elections is a matter for UNMIK" -- the UN mission in Kosovo -- a European Commission spokesman said, citing earlier comments by EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.

"UNMIK has stated that 'those local elections, their outcomes and the Serbian municipal institutions for which they purported to elect representatives are all without legal standing or effect in Kosovo'," he added.

"The commission supports UNMIK's position."

UNMIK has run Kosovo under UN Resolution 1244 since a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ousted Serbian forces then waging a brutal crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade in March and has since been recognised by 43 countries, including the United States and most but not all of the 27-member European Union.

But Serbia -- together with Russia, its principal ally on the world stage -- maintain the declaration violates international law, and they continue to regard Kosovo as a province of Serbia.

The setting up of the Kosovo Serb assembly was immediately denounced by Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister Ram Manaj as "an attempt to create a virtual parliament which will continue to manipulate the Serbs."

Kosovo's new constitution went into effect June 15, paving the way for EULEX, a 2,000-strong EU police and justice mission.

UNMIK is to transfer its main responsibilities in the areas of police, law and customs to EULEX, as well as some powers to Kosovar authorities. But EULEX's deployment has been delayed by the political situation.

Some 90 percent of Kosovo's two million population are Albanian. The Serbian minority lives mainly in Kosovo's north.

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