The executive order was issued Wednesday by Soren Jessen-Petersen of the
United Nations. The canyon was declared a special zone on April 25, 2005.

Ethnic Albanian landowners and others, however, have protested the move.

But Jessen-Petersen contended that the canyon in western Kosovo, home to the
14th-century Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani, "requires special
protection measures to preserve its unique cultural, historic and natural
attributes, which are the common heritage of Kosovo."

UNESCO designated the structure, the largest and the best preserved medieval
monastery in the province, a world heritage site in 2004.

"The special zoning area does not affect private ownership rights,"
Jessen-Petersen said in a statement. However it does "makes clear that
potential investors, owners and users of all land in the area must follow
Kosovo laws and UNESCO and other international standards on the preservation
of cultural and natural heritage."

UNESCO stands for U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Preservation of the province's cultural heritage is also part of the
U.N.-mediated talks aimed at finding solution for Kosovo's disputed status
by the end of 2006.

Kosovo has been run as a U.N. protectorate since mid-1999, when a NATO air
war halted a crackdown by Serb forces on independence-seeking ethnic
Albanians.

The province was the seat of the medieval Serbian state and the Serbian
Orthodox Church. Serbs cherish it as the cradle of their history and
culture, but its ethnic Albanian majority wants independence.