Six hundred British troops deployed to “a calm but tense” Kosovo as an operational reserve force are facing an uncertain and unpredictable one-month tour.

The soldiers from the 2nd Battalion The Rifles have been deploying for some weeks and will be at full strength tomorrow and operationally ready to begin their mission on Wednesday.

The battalion is highly experienced, having served in Iraq on two tours, in 2003 and 2006/2007, and is being sent to Afghanistan next year.

The battalion also served in Kosovo, in 2005, but this time the former Yugoslav province is now the world’s newest sovereign country - the Republic of Kosovo - and the potential for confrontation between the majority Albanians and the minority Serbs remains the biggest concern for the international community.

Nato diplomatic sources said the Kosovan Albanians had been “remarkably restrained” in the face of provocation from the Serb community, following the declaration of unilateral independence by the majority ethnic administration in Pristina on February 17.

However, the sources warned that the political stability of Kosovo was being undermined by the failure of the United Nations and the European Community to clarify their roles and responsibilities. There remained confusion, they said, between UNMIK, the UN Mission in Kosovo, and EULEX, the EU police mission.”What is key is for the EU police mission fully to take responsibility for policing Kosovo, but there seems to be some hesitation over this, which puts the Nato troops serving in the Kosovo Force (Kfor) in a difficult position. Kfor is not supposed to be a police force but is there to maintain a safe and secure environment,” one Nato diplomatic source said.

Unless the roles were properly organised and implemented, the sources said, it could provoke potential problems for the new country as it approaches the next key date in its development - June 15 - when the constitution comes into force, with significant authority transferring from UNMIK to the Kosovars.

The soldiers of 2 Rifles, drafted in to provide the commander of Kfor with extra firepower and flexibility, will be based in a Kosovan Albanian area, although it also contains two Serb enclaves.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rob Thomson, commanding officer of 2 Rifles, said: “The physical presence of military people in and around these enclaves which feel isolated because they’re so small in number amongst large populations of Albanians, means we will provide reassurance.”

He said his soldiers would also provide close protection to one particular monastery which was ransacked in 2004. “There’s a great deal of nervousness amongst the orthodox sisters there that the same sort of thing will happen again,” he said.

The battalion has been undergoing some basic language-training as well as cultural awareness lessons. In preparation for its mission, 2 Rifles whose home base is in Ballykinler in Northern Ireland, carried out public order training in a fake village with a criss-cross of terraced housing, small shops and burnt-out cars.

With memories of the violence that broke out between Serbs and Albanians in the town of Mitrovica in 2004 and again in March this year, riot-control has been the key feature of the training. The handover of power on June 15 could lead to a flare-up of violence, but as Lieutenant Andrew Huxter, platoon commander with 2 Rifles, said: “We’ve taken on Basra, so Kosovo will have to seriously flare up for us to be put under pressure.”

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