NATO: Alliance's Kosovo force to be halved to 5,000 troops by March 1

BRUSSELS - NATO says its 10,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo will be cut in half by March 1.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday that security in the world's newest nation was stable and warranted the drawdown.

NATO took control of Kosovo following a brief aerial war with Serbia, part of an international effort to end the crackdown by then-President Slobodan Milosevic against the ethnic Albanian majority in Serbia's southern province.

The international force, which originally numbered nearly 50,000 troops, has been shrinking ever since.

Kosovo proclaimed its independence from Serbia in February 2008.