(PRISTINA) - The European Union's law and order mission (EULEX) will be fully operational in Kosovo in the coming months, a top official said Monday.

"I think we can be ready next autumn with the fully operational capacity to work on the rule of law issues," Yves de Kermabon, the head of EULEX, told reporters after a series of meetings with the Kosovo senior officials.

De Kermabon, a French diplomat, said the EU mission would not follow steps of the existing UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

"EULEX is not here to replace UNMIK. It is a completely different mission... EULEX is here to assist the Kosovo leadership," he said.

"So in this environment EULEX is under a very clear chain of command which is a European chain of command," de Kermabon said, adding that it would report not to New York but Brussels.

The UN mission has run Kosovo under UN Resolution 1244 since a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ousted Serbian forces then waging a brutal crackdown on the sepaaratist Albanian majority.

Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade in February and has since been recognized 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.

Under the plan devised by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, EULEX, a 2,000-strong EU police and justice mission, will initially operate under the auspices of the world body's Kosovo mission.

"We are now in close consultation with UNMIK in order to prepare this deployment," Kermabon said.

He added that the EU's aim is "to deploy this mission Kosovo-wide," despite the opposition of Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade opposition to the EULEX functioning without UN backing.

About 90 percent of Kosovo's two million population is Albanian. The Serbian minority lives mainly in Kosovo's north and have rejected the independence declaration and Pristina authorities.

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