Kosovo Police Injured in Serb Protest

Ten Kosovo police officers were injured today when Serb war veterans threw stones and bottles during a protest at a border crossing.

The incident took place about 32 km (20 miles) north-east of the capital, Pristina. Kosovo police said the 150 protesters, chanting "Kosovo is Serbia", came from Serbia, bringing with them a truck full of stones and bottles.

Police fired tear gas, and Nato peace keepers helped bring the situation under control.

In the Serb stronghold of north Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, more than 1,000 people demonstrated for a seventh day, burning an EU flag and a picture of the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, with Serbia's pro-western president, Boris Tadic.

The nationalist Serbian prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, said Serbia would do all in its power to exert its authority in Kosovo.

"Serbia will do everything to implement its jurisdiction and state prerogatives for all loyal citizens in Kosovo - Serbs and non-Albanians," he said. "Protest rallies will not stop as long as illegal independence is not annulled."

Kostunica won renewed backing from Russia, whose likely next president, Dmitry Medvedev, made a high-profile visit to Belgrade and said Moscow would continue to back Serbian sovereignty.

"The point of my brief visit was to express support to Serbia" at a time when it faces Kosovo's secession, said Medvedev, who is almost certain to win Russia's presidential election on March 2.

"This decision will project on to other regions, where problems of status of separate territories are acute," he added.

Russia has strongly backed Serbia over Kosovo, formerly a Serbian province, on the grounds that its independence sets a dangerous precedent for other secession movements.

The US, Britain and other major European countries, have recognized Kosovo, which has been under UN administration since 1999, when Nato warplanes drove out Serbian troops accused of the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians.

"We are going to continue to try to work with both the Russians and the Serbs on this but I think that it ought to be clear to everybody at this point that Kosovo is never going to be a part of Serbia again," a US state department spokesman, Tom Casey, told reporters.

Some Serb ultra-nationalists who oppose gradual integration into the EU and Nato, view Russia as a possible alternative. They have proposed that Moscow establish military bases on Serbian territory, though Russia has shown no sign of interest in such a move.

Pro-western political leaders have ridiculed the suggestions. Nenad Canak, leader of the reformist Social-Democratic League of Vojvodina, accused Kostunica of trying to turn Serbia into a "Russian Gulag", referring to the system of slave labor camps established under the former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

"Today we must choose between Europe and Asia, between democracy and totalitarianism," Canak said yesterday.

Serbia and Russia have grown increasingly close in recent years, and economic ties are booming. In January, the Kremlin signed two multi billion dollar agreements with Serbia that Russian officials said would make the poor Balkan nation an important hub for the distribution of Russian gas.

The deal includes an agreement to route a part of the planned South Stream gas pipeline through Serbia en route to western Europe, and to build a major gas storage facility in Serbia.