Pristina - Violence flared Monday in the tense northern Kosovo, with shots fired in an ongoing confrontation of minority Serbs and European Union police. "Shots were heard ... we have no reports of injuries," said Kosovo police spokesman Besim Hoti. Local media, however, said at least one Serb was wounded by gunfire.

Police of the EU law-enforcing mission in Kosovo, EULEX, fired tear gas on Saturday at the same site, the Brdjani neighbourhood of the divided hotspot town of Kosovska Mitrovica.

Pristina - Policemen with the EU Kosovo mission EULEX in the city of Mitrovica deployed tear gas to prevent a potential violent confrontation between ethnic Serbs and ethnic Albanians on Saturday. According to local media, police were acting to prevent rioting in the majority Serb city against ethnic Albanians who had returned to repair their homes destroyed in the 1998-99 civil war.

The ethnic Serbs had demanded a ban on ethnic Albanians rebuilding their homes.

EULEX police were supported by units from the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR.

Pristina - Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu called on Wednesday the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to end its presence, Sejdiu's office said in a statement.

"In the past 10 years Kosovo's institutions and UNMIK have marked an overall progress in the country's renewal. But we think that time has come for this mission to end successfully," Sejdiu was quoted as saying in a personal message to the UN special representative in Kosovo Lamberto Zannier.

Pristina  - Kosovo officials on Friday granted Serbian president Boris Tadic permission for a "private visit" to Kosovo, government officials told the German Press Agency dpa.

The Serbian president will visit the Decani monastery in western Kosovo and spend Orthodox Good Friday there with monks and believers, Tadic's cabinet told Belgrade media. The cabinet said that Tadic had not formally requested a permit to enter Kosovo.

Pristina - The European Union's mission in Kosovo (Eulex) became fully operational on Monday, four months after it was launched with the goal of helping Kosovo implement the rule of law.

During a short press conference at the opening of new central headquarters in Pristina, the head of the Eulex Yves de Kermabon said that the Eulex became fully operational and that with 3,000 people, it was the biggest EU mission in the world.

Pristina - The mayor of Belgrade, Dragan Djilas, and advisor to Serbian president, Mladjan Djordjevic, were on Monday denied entry into Kosovo.

The delegation tried to enter the former Serbian province through the southern border at Koncul, but they did not present passports and had not sought permission from Kosovo authorities, Kosovo police said.

Djilas and Djordjevic had planned to visit Serbs living in eastern town of Kamenica.

Theirs was the fourth official Serbian delegation refused entry into Kosovo in the past few weeks.