EU urges Serbia to protect foreign embassies

European Union officials called on Serbia yesterday to do more to protect foreign embassies targeted in protests against Kosovo's secession, warning the violence could have an impact on EU-Serbian ties.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters at an EU event in Slovenia that the violence could harm progress on a preliminary deal on ties with the EU, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA).

"Things will have to calm down before we can recuperate the climate that would allow for any contact to move on the SAA," Mr Solana said after the storming of the US embassy in Belgrade and attacks on the German and British missions on Thursday.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU respected the democratic right of the Serbian people to voice their opinion on developments in Kosovo, "but the use of violence for expressing one's opinion is unacceptable", he said.

"I call on the Serbian authorities to ensure the proper protection of diplomatic missions in the country," Mr Rehn said in a statement.

The Stabilisation and Association Agreement was initialled last year but the EU has said it will not sign it until Belgrade fully cooperates with the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The EU was ready to sign an interim trade deal but Belgrade's nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica blocked the move earlier this month because of the row over Kosovo.

Serbian rioters enraged by Kosovo's secession stormed the US embassy in Belgrade on Thursday and set it on fire, leaving one protester dead. Germany and Britain also said their missions had been vandalised. But police were nowhere to be seen when just a few score rioters - many wearing balaclavas - attacked the US embassy for the second time in a week.

Meanwhile, the US State Department is likely to approve a request from the US ambassador in Belgrade for family members and non-emergency personnel to be allowed to leave until security there improves, a department spokesman said yesterday.

The request from Ambassador Cameron Munter came after the US Embassy in Belgrade was attacked on Thursday by rioters who set it on fire in a protest over Kosovo's secession.