PRISTINA — Kosovo will declare independence today amid growing excitement among its ethnic Albanians, anger from its Serbs, and the launch of a EU mission to smoothen the birth of the world’s newest state.

“Tomorrow will be a day of calm, of understanding and of state engagements for the implementation of the will of the citizens of Kosovo,” Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said yesterday in reference to the breakaway ethnic Albanian majority.

Expectations of a declaration of independence today have been running high for several days — but Thaci’s comments marked the first top-level confirmation of the long-awaited break with Serbia.

Within an hour of Thaci speaking, convoys of vehicles zipped through the streets of Pristina, cheerfully honking their horns and waving Albanian, British, German, NATO and US flags.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with religious leaders, Thaci appealed for celebrations to unfold with “dignity ... on the day of the declaration of independence, on the big day, on the historic day ... a day of thanksgiving for a sovereign and independent Kosovo.”

Serbia, which sees Kosovo as the cradle of Serb culture and religion, and Russia, Belgrade’s main ally on the world stage, has vowed never to recognize an independent Kosovo.

Independence is expected to be declared at around 3:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) today to the strains of “Ode to Joy,” the anthem of the European Union, according to local news media.

Street parties and fireworks would follow.

European Union’s Role

The European Union yesterday launched a 2,000-member police and judicial mission to help ease Kosovo’s transition to independence — even as the bloc’s 27 members remain split on how to recognize the new state.

In the days after independence is declared, the EULEX Kosovo mission will begin a 120-day countdown to taking over policing duties from a United Nations mission, which will up stakes and leave.

“We’ve had an office there (in Kosovo) for this express purpose since April 2006,” one EU official said Friday. A “planning team” of more than 100 people has also been in place in Pristina for several weeks. In the divided northern city of Kosovoska Mitrovica, a potential flashpoint for violence today, Kosovo Serb leader Milan Ivanovic rejected the EU mission, vowing it would be boycotted by his people.

“The EU mission is not welcome. We will boycott it and use all methods of civic resistance,” Ivanovic said. Serbs make up 120,000 of Kosovo’s 1.8 million people and they want to stay part of Serbia.

In the streets of Pristina, many shopkeepers yesterday festooned their windows with the Albanian flag — a black eagle on a red background — sometimes alongside banners boasting 50 percent off sales.

Colorful posters expressed thanks to the United States, Britain and the European Union for supporting independence, or hailed former US President Bill Clinton for launching the 1999 NATO war against Serbia.

“There’s going to be euphoria,” said Flutra Limani, 24, who waits tables at a trendy Pristina bar. “Everyone is talking about this.”

Thaci’s government has reportedly ordered 80 tons of fireworks from Bulgaria for the occasion, while a chic bakery called Fellini’s has garnered publicity with a jumbo Kosovo-shaped independence cake.

European Union foreign ministers will meet in Brussels tomorrow to try to draw up a “common platform” in response to Kosovo’s independence, one that does not include the notion of the bloc as a whole recognizing the new state.

European Union leaders committed in December to help with a settlement on Kosovo’s final status, including economic and political assistance and by offering Kosovo the prospect of EU membership some time in the distant future. But some countries will refuse, at least in the short term, to recognize the new state.

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain are among them, while others such as Malta and Portugal would have preferred Kosovo’s future to be in the UN Security Council where Russia has effectively vetoed independence.

Opponents to independence fear it could serve as a precedent for other separatist groups in Europe, as well as undermine Balkan security that remains fragile after the inter-ethnic wars of the 1990s.