The Government Chief Whip, Tom Kitt, has pledged Ireland's support in finding a final solution in the peace process in Kosovo.
Mr Kitt, a Minister of State at the Department of Defence, was speaking at the end of a visit to Kosovo where he met leading politicians and an Irish general who has just taken up a key position in the capital, Pristina.
A decade after the horrors of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, Kosovo is still run by the UN and NATO with an interim administration.
Up to 15,000 peacekeepers are required in a country about the size of Leinster.
But elections are due in November and international negotiations on an independence plan for Kosovo may conclude by Christmas.
Irish peacekeepers have been in Kosovo for eight years and 250 of them remain there at present.
Minister Kitt said the people of Kosovo are still suffering greatly and Ireland would continue to help them by providing peacekeepers and pushing their peace process at EU level.
Mr Kitt's visit coincides with the appointment of an Irish officer to a top post.
Brigadier General Gerry Hegarty has just taken responsibility for 1,500 troops securing the capital Pristina and surrounding areas in the run up to the elections.
It is the first time the Defence Forces have held such a senior position in a NATO-led UN-approved mission.
