Eastleigh council chamber might seem a million miles away from battle-scarred Kosovo.

But council leader Keith House has been using his frontline local government skills to ease the war-torn region back into the ways of democracy.

He has just returned from a ten-day mission to help organise the local elections in Kosovo.

Cllr House was part of a 70-strong team of Britons working for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe), helping to develop democratic processes in the Balkans.

He said: "The international community, through the United Nations, has taken the lead since 1999 in assisting Kosovo return to peace and democracy.

"The aim of the election mission has been to pass on skills and knowledge on the running of elections to local politicians, administrators and people so that in future years they can be fully organised locally."

Cllr House was part of a larger team that took part in running parliamentary elections last year.

The Eastleigh civic chief said: "It has been good this year to see more local people involved in the organisation of the elections and in the international community to start to take more of a supervisory role.

"Over 50 per cent of voters turned out to vote in this year's local elections - a higher turnout than in Britain."

Kosovo is administered by the United Nations interim Mission in Kosovo within the state of Yugoslavia. It has a population of more than two million with a majority of ethnic Albanian and minority of ethnic Serbian residents. The OSCE has responsibility for creating new democratic institutions in the region.