UN authorities in Kosovo halted a Serb train at the country's northern border today after Serbia said it had "reclaimed" the railway track in the Serb north of its former province.
The UN chief administrator in Kosovo, German diplomat Joachim Ruecker, said the UN mission's intervention at the border "reverses the challenge" to its authority from Serbia.
Serbia today said it had retaken responsibility for a 30-km stretch of track in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo. It blocked one train from Pristina at the first mainly Serb town, Zvecan, and sent two of its own across the border.
Serbia has been pushing Kosovo's 120,000-strong Serb minority to reject all ties with the new state of Kosovo since the Albanian majority declared independence on February 17th.
Despite the UN statement, dozens of Serbs again gathered on the tracks at Zvecan and staff could be seen wearing Serbian Railway uniforms and badges.
The train from Pristina, used mainly by minority Serbs travelling to work, study or shop in the north never left the capital. Kosovo Railways cited concern "for the safety of our workers, who were threatened yesterday".
The major Western powers backed Kosovo's declaration of independence nine years after NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces and halt the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year Serb counter-insurgency war.
But Serbia has Russian support in rejecting the secession and appears determined to retain control over Serb areas, particularly the north. Around 200 Serb officers in the Kosovo police service have been suspended for refusing orders from the Albanian-dominated command and demanding they report only to the UN police.
Customs posts in the north have been attacked, and Serbs are bidding to take control of the main UN court in the north by preventing its Albanian staff from travelling to work.
The European Union is due to take over policing and supervision of Kosovo, but faces a challenge to impose its authority in the north.
It has already withdrawn a small advance EU team from the Serb stronghold of north Mitrovica. EU Kosovo envoy Pieter Feith last week accused Serbia of trying to "sever ties" between the 90-per cent Albanian majority and Serb minority.