PRISTINA, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - Kosovo and Macedonia began negotiations on Tuesday over a seven-year-old border dispute, said a European Union mission which monitored the talks.

'The Joint Technical Commission for the demarcation of the border met today' in the Kosovo capital Pristina, said the EU's International Civil Office (ICO).

'The two delegations, each composed of five members, discussed the way forward,' it said in a statement that added further talks would be held in the coming days.

The ICO is laying the ground for the deployment of a new EU-led mission in Kosovo, an ethnic Albanian-majority province of Serbia which unilaterally declared independence on February 17.

The disputed boundary straddles a mountain region above the Kosovo village of Debellde, whose farmers say they were deprived of 2,000 hectares of land in a border deal reached between Serbia and Macedonia in 2001.

At the time, Kosovo's parliament rejected the deal, saying it was invalid because it was signed with Serbia two years after it lost control of Kosovo and its southern border.

But the move was promptly annulled by the UN mission that has run Kosovo since 1999.

Macedonia had made the border talks a pre-condition for it to consider joining the countries that have so far recognised Kosovo's independence.