PRISTINA, Serbia, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Kosovo was heading for a likely grand coalition on Sunday to lead the province into a final showdown with Serbia on the ethnic Albanian majority's demand for independence.

A senior official in Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party (PDK), which has claimed victory in Saturday's parliamentary election, told Reuters a coalition with the second-placed Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) was "the most likely, since there's no other option".

The PDK and LDK have been bitter rivals since Thaci's guerrilla fighters eclipsed the LDK's policy of passive resistance to Serb rule in the 1990s, under the guidance of the late independence leader, Ibrahim Rugova. (Reporting by Matt Robinson; editing by Douglas Hamilton)

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