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 - 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.

Pristina - European Union judges in a Kosovo appeals court cleared an Albanian man who had previously been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 2001 bombing of a Serbian bus, local reports said Friday.

The appeals court ruled Thursday that the evidence against Florim Ejupi was insufficient for a conviction and ordered his release. The panel was comprised of judges from Eulex, the law-enforcing mission EU deployed to Kosovo in December.

It was the first ruling of the Eulex appeals court since the mission deployed four months ago.