Most EU states want to wait until mid-February to launch a police and justice mission in Kosovo, fearful an earlier move could hurt the pro-European incumbent in Serbia's presidential vote, diplomats said.

The launch of the 1,800-strong mission in the breakaway Serb province had been pencilled in for Jan. 28. But several states are concerned that is just days ahead of the expected Feb. 3 Serb election run-off, dominated by debate over Kosovo.

Postponing the deployment decision would also ensure it did not undermine the long-awaited signing of an agreement for closer ties with Serbia, which Brussels hopes to stage at a meeting of foreign ministers on Jan. 28.

"Most people think January would be bad timing (to launch the mission). They would take a lot of convincing at this stage to make them change their mind," one diplomat involved in deliberations on the issue said on Friday.

"There is no decision yet, but there are concerns about doing it in January because of the elections," said another envoy, adding there would be further discussions in the EU.

Kosovo is seen defying Belgrade and Serb ally Russia by making an independence declaration sometime around March.

The EU move to take over policing and other rule of law tasks from the United Nations, which has administered Kosovo since NATO bombs drove out Serb forces in 1999, is the most ambitious security mission undertaken by the bloc.

The question of closer EU ties has become a bone of contention in the Serb election, the first round of which is due on Jan. 20. Nationalists are keen to show they are toughest in defending Belgrade's sovereignty.

DOUBTERS

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said last week that the EU would have to choose between closer ties with Serbia or deploying the Kosovo mission as a prelude to an independence declaration. The EU rejects any such linkage.

The minute deliberations over the timetable for Kosovo's move to independence show the 27-member bloc's desire for pro-EU President Boris Tadic to strengthen his grip on power and to prepare Serb opinion for the painful loss of the province.

While the vast majority of EU capitals are ready to support a declaration of independence expected from next month onwards, Greece and Cyprus have led a small camp of doubters. A united EU line may not emerge until March, by which time the first EU police and justice officials should be on the ground.

German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler told Reuters this week a "problematic vacuum" leading to instability could open up if the EU wavered in recognising Kosovo's independence, and the United States is also anxious for an early move.

However, a senior EU source said Washington acknowledged the need to keep the bloc from dividing, as it did disastrously in the 1990s during the Balkans war it failed to prevent.

"I have also discussed this with our American friends and they are willing to let us prepare the EU for maximum unity," said the source, involved in managing Balkans relations.

Ministers from the United States, Russia and the four major EU powers involved in Balkan diplomacy -- Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- are due to meet to discuss Kosovo in the Slovenian city of Brdo on Jan. 19, diplomats said.

Another EU source said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has been trying to hold back discussion of Kosovo independence until after the Spanish general election on March 9 to avoid causing problems for the Zapatero government.

With Catalonia and the Basque country in mind, Spain is wary about the precedent of a region declaring independence unilaterally without a U.N. resolution.