BELGRADE, May 21, 2009 (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden departed Belgrade on Thursday for Kosovo, where he is expected to receive a hero's welcome for his support of its independence, an AFP photographer reported.

Biden will become the highest-ranking US official to visit Kosovo since its ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament seceded from Serbia and was promptly recognised by the United States last year.

Coming after trips to Bosnia and Serbia, his trip to Kosovo is the final stop the US vice president is to make on a landmark tour of the Balkans to demonstrate US engagement in the volatile region.

In Belgrade, Biden said the United States does not expect Serbia to recognise the independence of Kosovo, the ethnic Albanian-majority province that broke away from Serbia on February 17, 2008.

"The United States does not, I emphasise, does not expect Serbia to recognise the independence of Kosovo," Biden told a joint media conference with pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic.

In Bosnia a day earlier, however, he stressed Washington's decision to recognise Kosovo would not be reviewed by the four-month-old administration of US President Barack Obama.

"This independence, while young, is irreversible, and critically important to this region's stability and progress," he said in a speech to Bosnian lawmakers.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Biden can expect a "magnificent" welcome when he arrives in Pristina, where "thank you" billboards and thousands of students will await his convoy.