Serb and Kosovar officials in face off

TENSIONS mounted yesterday after Serbian and Kosovo officials came face-to-face for the first time since Kosovo declared independence - a move Belgrade said it would challenge in court.

"Let me tell you loud and clear: for as long as Serbia is, Kosovo shall never be," Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told a meeting of Balkan foreign ministers in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, attended by a Kosovo delegation.

"Kosovo will not be a member of the United Nations. It will not be a member of the OSCE. And as such, it will not belong to the world community of sovereign nations. It will never acquire this ultimate status of legitimacy," he said.

Mr Jeremic said later yesterday that Belgrade would ask the International Court of Justice to ascertain "whether or not this (declaration of independence) was done in compliance with international law".

The minister urged the international community not to recognise Kosovo until the ICJ had made its ruling.

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