Related: Kosovo PM Confirms Independence Declaration on Sunday

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Sunday he has called for an extraordinary session of the province's parliament for the proclamation of independence from Serbia.

He said he has delivered a letter signed by himself and Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu to Parliament Speaker Kole Berisha for such a session.

The speaker has accepted the letter, Thaci told a press conference in Pristina, the provincial capital.

On the agenda of the extraordinary session are the proclamation of independence and discussions on national symbols, such as the flag and emblem, he said.

"We are on the brink of a new era and we need to take decisions to be part of the free world," he said.

It is understood that the parliament session would start around noon and independence would be proclaimed around 3:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).

Thaci is expected to speak to Kosovars in the evening in Pristina.

Kosovo is a cultural heartland of Serbia. But 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are ethnic Albanians, who have been impatient with delays of the proclamation of independence.

The NATO-led international peacekeeping force, KFOR, keeps a close eye on the province to prevent violence.

"KFOR will respond -- with force -- to any provocation, wherever it may come from, be it the Albanian or the Serb side," KFOR commander General Xavier Bout de Marnhac told reporters on Saturday.

The EU on Saturday approved the deployment of a 1,800-strong police and justice mission for Kosovo to guide the region toward statehood.

The EU mission, dubbed EULEX, is expected to ultimately replace the UN mission in Kosovo, the actual administrator of the province since 1999.

Kosovo has been under UN administration since mid-1999, after NATO launched airstrikes to drive out Serbian forces from the province.

In April 2007, UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari recommended the proposed internationally supervised independence for Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up most of its population.

The Ahtisaari plan is supported by the United States and the EU, but opposed by Serbia and Russia.

Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, has warned that Kosovo independence would set dangerous precedents for regions across the world where there are ethnic tensions.

Moscow said Friday that it will take into account the proclamation of Kosovo's independence in its policy toward West-leaning Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.