Independent Kosovo? Why not Vermont?

Others wonder if the already unwieldy EU and U.N. can handle much more. The 27-nation EU already has 23 official languages, and many doubt it could cope if it had to add Albanian and Welsh to the mix.

"At a time when borders are coming down in the EU, freeing up the markets and trade, it makes no sense to put them up here," said Angus MacGregor, an insurance broker in Scotland, whose nationalist minority government is pressing to break away from Britain.

The Scottish National Party has promised to hold a referendum on independence by 2010. Although a vote looks unlikely, it's not for lack of trying.

After 700 years of struggle dating back to William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, Scotland's latest "Braveheart" is Connery.

"All of my life experience tells me that an independent Scotland will be successful," the James Bond actor said in TV spots aired last year.

Split kingdoms
Belgium could be the next country to face a big breakup: A nasty rift between Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north and French-speaking southern Wallonia has raised speculation that the kingdom may split in two.

Other movements have been around for decades.

There's the drive to gain independence for Biafra in Nigeria's oil-rich east, and the fringe Puerto Rican Independence Party, still seeking to wrest back the island the U.S. seized in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War.

The United Kingdom looks pretty disunited, too, and not just because of Scotland.

Some in Northern Ireland still advocate unification with Ireland. The Party of Wales wants an independent Welsh state. And in southwestern England, a boisterous secessionist group is trying to carve a country out of Cornwall.

In the U.S., separatist movements advocate independence for Alaska, Texas and the southern states.

And more obscure groups abound.

Ex-Soviet Moldova, just half the size of West Virginia, already has one breakaway republic, Trans-Dniester. But there's also Gagauzia, an autonomous no man's land. Though it doesn't have a prayer of gaining independence, it still sports a flag featuring a snarling red wolf's head.

Other "stateless nations" range from the Veps _ people of Baltic Finn extraction in northwestern Russia _ to the Sorbs, a Slavonic people who occupy parts of the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland.

"One thing's for sure," said Vermont's Naylor. "We didn't start this. We're just continuing the process."

Associated Press Writer Ben McConville in Edinburgh, Scotland, contributed to this report.

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