Albania stands ready to cooperate fully with the European Union and the United Nations on probes into allegations that the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) held ethnic Serbs captive and harvested their organs in Albania, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said on Wednesday.

Albania flatly denies the charges made by Dick Marty, a Swiss senator and rapporteur of the Council of Europe, and plans to ask Marty to put forward any evidence about the "macabre acts," Berisha said.

Marty alleged in a report that some 10,000 ethnic Albanian Kosovans lost their lives during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war, and that by the end of the conflict, around 500 people, mostly Serbs, disappeared.

"We invite the EULEX (EU mission in Kosovo) to undertake the investigation and guarantee the full support and cooperation of the Albanian authorities," Berisha told a regular government meeting. "Irrespective of the fact that EULEX has only a mandate for the independent state of Kosovo, we fully welcome its investigation."

"At the same time, I would like to ask the Minister of Justice to address a special letter to the Chairman of the International Court at The Hague to invite and guarantee him that they will not face any obstacle for every kind of investigation in Albania although the tribunal has a mandate to probe war crimes in former Yugoslavia," Berisha said.

In a two-way reaction, Albania's delegation to the Council of Europe plans to push Marty to hand over any fresh evidence other than what has been made public so far.

"The Albanian delegation in the Council of Europe will start its work with the single and unique request to have Dick Marty hand over the evidence, if he has any, to the EULEX authorities," Berisha said.

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