Fireworks and celebratory gunfire crackled across Kosovo last night after it finally declared independence from Belgrade, bringing the joyous ethnic Albanian majority onto the streets and keeping fearful Serbs hunkered down in their heavily guarded enclaves.
The capital, Pristina, was filled with revellers waving the scarlet-and-black Albanian flag and cars with horns honking and stereos blaring, in scenes repeated in miniature in most of the towns and villages of this new state of two million people.
In their stronghold of Mitrovica and enclaves around Kosovo, however, the mood among Serbs was very different.
The streets were almost deserted, a few Serbian banners fluttered, and heavily armed North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops maintained a prominent presence. Hand grenades were thrown at European Union and United Nations offices in Mitrovica, but did not cause injury or significant damage, while in Belgrade youths clashed with riot police.
The immediate response from independent Kosovo's international patrons was muted, ahead of today's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. Washington joined European capitals in calling for calm in Kosovo and Serbia.
Serbia vowed never to accept Kosovo's sovereignty and Russia called an emergency meeting of the United Nation's (UN) Security Council to discuss a move that it said could trigger a new war in the Balkans.
After the meeting seven western countries said the security council could not agree on the future of Kosovo and its security and stability must be assured through the European Union and Nato.
"We regret that the security council cannot agree on the way forward, but this impasse has been clear for many months," Belgian Ambassador Johan Verbeke said in a statement on behalf of Belgium, France, Italy, Britain, Croatia, Germany and the United States.
"Today's events ... represent the conclusion of a status process that has exhausted all avenues in pursuit of a negotiated outcome," he said .
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans to refrain from violence or any statement that could jeopardise peace after Kosovo declared independence.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern is to recommend that Ireland formally recognise Kosovo's independence. "We are faced with a decision to recognise Kosovo. My intention is to do so," he said yesterday.
"Serbia effectively lost Kosovo through its own actions in the 1990s. The bitter legacy of the killings of thousands of civilians in Kosovo and the ethnic cleansing of many more has effectively ruled out any restoration of Serbian dominion in Kosovo."
A spokesman for the Defence Forces, Cmdt Gavin Young, said the 300 Irish troops based in Kosovo were on "high alert" .
He said most of the Irish soldiers were deployed on operations aimed at controlling any celebrations among the majority ethnic Albanian population that could spark unrest.
The Irish troops are in Kosovo as part of the multinational 16,000-strong, Nato-led peace force.
Ireland's Brig Gen Gerry Hegarty commands a multinational taskforce of 1,500 troops. It oversees an area of central Kosovo, including Pristina, with a population of more than 900,000, representing around half the population of the territory.
Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who led separatist rebels during their 1998-9 war with Serbia, told parliament after it had voted in favour of independence: "We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state."