BRUSSELS, June 25 (Xinhua) -- A 2,500-strong Kosovo Security Force (KSF) to be trained by NATO will be operational toward the end of 2009, said a NATO spokesman on Wednesday.

    "The first phase of standing up the KSF should be completed toward the end of 2009. And then we will see a few years later it becomes fully operational," James Appathurai told reporters.

    He said the KSF will be armed with light weapons and will be deployed throughout Kosovo, focusing on crisis response and civil emergency response.

    The KSF will by no means be military and will be overseen by a civil body in the Kosovar government, said the spokesman.

    The KSF is designed to be multi-ethnic. But the final composition is hard to predict, he said. "The KSF is clearly envisioned to be multi-ethnic and there will be slots for all communities."

    NATO is overseeing the standing up of KSF as well as the establishment of the civil body, he said.

    NATO defense ministers agreed two weeks ago that the alliance will help train the KSF, which will replace the existing Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) made up mostly of former ethnic Albanian guerrillas who fought Serbia in the late 1990s.

    Appathurai said the standing down of the KPC and the standing up of the KSF should be seen as two separate processes and that there will not be a transition from the KPC to the KSF. Membership of the KSF is up to certain standards yet to be defined.