Pristina - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Monday rejected a break-up of Kosovo after Serbia renewed its threat to seek secession of the former province's minority Serbs.

Gates was the first US cabinet member to visit Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in February.

He met Kosovo's leaders and was visiting US troops stationed in Kosovo.

"The United States supports the territorial integrity of Kosovo," he told reporters in the capital, Pristina.

"I do not believe partition is a solution for Kosovo, now or any time in the future."

He pledged continued US support for Kosovo's independence, a stand that has outraged Serbia and irritated Russia.

Serbia's pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, said last week he would consider partitioning Kosovo if all other options were exhausted.

Some 1,600 US troops serve in Kosovo as part of a 15,000-strong, NATO-led international peacekeeping force, known as KFOR.

The US military set up a sprawling military base near the Macedonian border, Camp Bondsteel, after NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to drive out Yugoslav forces and end a bloody conflict with Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians.

US troops will remain in Kosovo at least through 2009, Gates said.

"We came in together and we will go out together", he said. "We all look forward to the day when peace is self-sustaining."

Serbia, backed by Russia, bitterly opposes Kosovo's independence and has asked the International Court of Justice to rule whether the declaration is legal.

More than 40 countries, including the US and most European Union countries, have recognized Kosovo as an independent nation. (dpa)