The security of the Kosovo officials at the disputed border posts is currently guaranteed by KFOR and EULEX, which is mandated to oversee police and customs services. AFP photo

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA: Nato-led peacekeeping troops were on Thursday heading to a border crossing at the centre of recent clashes with local Serbs in northern Kosovo, witnesses said.

Two convoys of at least 100 armed transport vehicles, trucks and dredges of the Kosovo peacekeeping forces (KFOR) moved towards the Brnjak border crossing into Serbia at around 2:30 am (0030 GMT), local reporters contacted by AFP said.

A convoy stopped before the first roadblock on the road to the Brnjak crossing, a Kosovo Serb citizen on the scene told AFP by telephone, adding that some 150 local Serbs gathered at the barricade.

Meanwhile, another KFOR's convoy stopped a few hundred meters (yards) away from another barricade on another road leading to Brnjak, a witness there said.

Some 100 Serbs swiftly assembled at the scene.

KFOR troops and Kosovo Serbs have been at a tense stand-off over two roadblocks barring access to the Brnjak and Jarinje and crossing points.

The situation at both barricades was tense but calm early Thursday, the sources said.

The Nato move came after talks with Serb leaders in northern Kosovo on Wednesday had failed to work out a deal over the barricades blocking access to the sensitive border crossings between Serbia and its breakaway republic Kosovo.

Following the new development Serbian President Boris Tadic urged both sides to remain calm, Tanjug reported.

“I demand KFOR and EULEX (the EU mission in Kosovo) to restrain from the use of force,” Tadic told the agency, adding that local Serb “citizens must not undertake violent reactions at any price.”Around 40,000 Serbs live in northern Kosovo, making up the majority in a number of towns. They refuse to recognise the authority of the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Angry local Serbs erected the barricades to prevent access to the border crossings after the Pristina government moved in September to put Kosovo Albanian customs and police officials on the border, fearing this would severely limit their access to Serbia.

The security of the Kosovo officials at the disputed border posts is currently guaranteed by KFOR and EULEX, which is mandated to oversee police and customs services.