UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29 (AFP) - The NATO-led international force in Kosovo should remain at its current level in order to ensure stability in the Serbian province, the head of the UN mission in Kosovo said Monday.

"We are entering a crucial phase in Kosovo and it is more than ever essential that we closely synchronise our political strategy with the right level of military preparedness and ability to respond," UN mission (UNMIK) chief Soren Jessen-Petersen said in a report to the UN Security Council.

"There can be no normalization and no stabilization in the western Balkans without a resolution of the Kosovo issue," Jessen-Petersen said.

The situation in the province has "improved significantly" since anti-Serb riots in March left 19 people dead and drove 4,000 people, mainly Serbs, from their villages, Jessen-Petersen said.

Kosovo has been under UN and NATO control since 1999 after the NATO alliance bombed Yugoslavia to end former president Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the province.

NATO's KFOR force numbers some 20,000 troops and is in charge of security in the province. Albanian-dominated Kosovo has been under UN administration since June 1999.