PRISTINA - Kosovo declared independence from Serbia yesterday, ending a long chapter in the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia.

Serbia responded immediately by calling its mainly Albanian breakaway province a false state and condemning the United States for supporting it. The proclamation was made by leaders of Kosovo's 90% ethnic Albanian majority, including former guerrillas who fought for independence in a 1998-99 war which claimed about 10,000 civilian lives.

"We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state," said the text read out in parliament by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. "This declaration reflects the will of the people."

All 109 deputies present at the session in the capital, Pristina, voted in favour with a show of hands. Eleven deputies from ethnic minorities, including Serbs, were absent.

Kosovo is "an independent, sovereign and democratic state," parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi announced after the vote.

Jubilant Kosovans in the snow-covered city had begun celebrating the night before.

But in Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kos-tunica branded the southern region "a false state" in a televised address to his nation just minutes after the vote in Pristina.

He said Kosovo was propped up unlawfully by the United States which was "ready to violate the international order for its own military interests." Russia backed ally Serbia yesterday in condemning Kosovo's declaration of independence and called for the United Nations to annul the move.

The Kosovan diaspora gathered in cities across Europe yesterday, expressing gratitude to Europe and the United States for the new-found independence of the breakaway province.

A jubilant crowd of 10,000 welcomed the news in the Swiss city of Lausanne, while others celebrated in Belgium and France. In Ottawa, 41-year-old Fadil Dalipi was left overwhelmed when the Kosovo parliament declared independence.

"There is no words for expression," said Mr. Dalipi, as he stood on Parliament Hill with more than a hundred singing revellers yesterday.

Waving red and black flags, members of the Albanian Canadian community braved the freezing rain and a bitterly cold wind to celebrate on Parliament Hill and urge the Canadian government to recognize Kosovo.

The Canadian position is still under discussion, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said last night.

North America's largest rally descended on Toronto, where thousands of Albanian-Canadians celebrated in similarly miserable conditions outside the provincial parliament.

Queen's Park was bathed in a sea of red flags, as elegantly dressed revellers -- many of them refugees -- huddled under umbrellas and skidded on a frozen snowbank. Children planted flags in the snow and men danced, chanting Kosova, the defiant Albanian name for Kosovo.

"I left because of Serbs. That is why I am here today. So I can go free," said Fazli Caka, who escaped in 1997 and settled in Hamilton.

They were bused in from Guelph, London and Kitchener, but Valvona Cana flew and bused it in from the Bronx with her two daughters, 13-year-old Alba and 16-year-old Jona.

Ms. Cana, who works at Victoria Secret in Manhattan, said she taught her daughters to advocate for the country early in their lives, taking both of them to visit after the war, and agitating for Alba to take up traditional violin.

"Albanians of Kosovo have been waiting for this moment for a thousand years and now the day has come -- we can put up with the weather," said event co-ordinator Albert Xhaferri.

The West supports the demand of Kosovo's two million ethnic Albanians for their own state, nine years after NATO went to war to save them from Serbian forces.

It will be the world's 193rd independent country but Serbia says it will never win a seat at the United Nations.

Serbs in the north of Kosovo will reject independence, cementing an ethnic partition that will weigh on the new state for years to come. Fewer than half of Kosovo's 120,000 remaining Serbs live in the north, while the rest are in scattered enclaves protected by NATO peacekeepers.

The European Union's foreign policy chief also called for stability in Kosovo and the whole Balkan region. The EU will send a supervisory mission to take over from the current UN authorities.

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