PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s prime minister resigned Friday after being invited for questioning by a Hague-based court investigating crimes against ethnic Serbs during and after the country’s 1998-99 war.

The prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, said he agreed to be interviewed at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers next week and didn’t want to appear there as prime minister. He said he and his cabinet would continue running the country until a new prime minister is chosen.

“I considered that I cannot go to the questioning as head of the government,” Mr. Haradinaj said at a news conference. “I will defend myself as a fighter of my country.”

Mr. Haradinaj, a former commander of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army, urged President Hashim Thaci to call an early parliamentary election and said he would be a candidate in hopes of regaining office. He said the special court summoned him as a suspect but he also told reporters that “I am not accused.”