FORMER South Dorset MP Ian Bruce has been helping to shape the future of Kosovo's new Parliamentary Assembly.

Elections which were held last November produced Kosovo's democratically-elected assembly, but it has taken the country another six months to thrash out the present sharing of Government and Parliamentary posts among the different political parties.

Mr Bruce was recently invited by the National Democratic Institute of the USA to take part in a further round of training with the MPs to explain how the Parliament can undertake its legislative and oversight roles.

About 70 per cent of the MPs attended the training and Mr Bruce was joined by Latvian MP Vaira Paegle and former Belgian MP Johan Hamels to help in running the training sessions.

Mr Bruce said: "I was extremely surprised over how long it was taking the Kosovan Parliamentarians to take up the powers that the United Nations had passed to them. I also hoped that the session run by the National Democratic Institute would help them to make more rapid progress.

"The security situation in Kosovo is now very much better, but the Albanian and Serb-speaking populations are still effectively partitioned into separate enclaves within Kosovo.

"The NATO taskforce and the United Nations are still in the country in very large numbers."

Mr Bruce added that he was looking forward to local people taking back control of their lives as quickly as possible so that the international community could return home.

Mr Bruce also had the opportunity to visit informally with some of the UK's armed forces and police officers on secondment.

He said: "Our soldiers are out there for six months at a time. I was able to visit the Prince of Wales own regiment and they told me that the local people were being extremely friendly and co-operative and the security situation was very stable.

"Personally I found the local people very friendly and in one caf I visited I was not allowed to put my hand in my pocket.

"I had all my coffees bought for me. They were so pleased to see me."