Some U.N. administrators believe the continued violence in the city may prevent future peace between the Serbs and Muslims.
"Reconciliation is absolutely impossible," said Bernard Kouchner, head of UNMIK, to the French Communist newspaper L'Humanite on Saturday.
"Who is crazy enough to think that in eight months we could have done what they haven't been able to do in Ireland for 30 years?" continued Kouchner.
Albright defended U.S. involvement in the peacekeeping mission in Mitrovica before a congressional subcommittee last Wednesday.
Albright described the continuing work as "essential."
Her testimony came the same day the Washington Post published excerpts from an internal U.N. report detailing torture, killing, extortion and threats against U.N. peacekeepers committed by the Kosovo Protection Force (KPF).
The U.N. and NATO have been supporting the KPF, a unit composed almost entirely of former Albanian guerillas.
Also on Wednesday, the Post quoted a senior Pentagon official who said that the U.S. might have to fight against the KPF if it continues its efforts in Kosovo.