Belgrade - Belgrade has expelled the Montenegrin ambassador and is set to take the same step in relations with Macedonia in reaction to the two countries' recognition of Kosovo, reports said Friday.

Podgorica and Skopje recognized Kosovo, a territory Serbia still claims as its province, Thursday night, some eight months after it unilaterally declared independence.

Though it was certain to strain ties with Serbia, a major trade and economic partner, Montenegro and Macedonia jointly said they "remain committed to further promotion of ... relations with Serbia."

Montenegrin ambassador, Anka Vojvodic, was immediately told she had 48 hours to leave. "It is not a clever and political move," Vojvodic was quoted as saying.

Podgorica - Montenegro on Thursday formally recognized the independence of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, Montenegrin Foreign Minister Milan Rochen reported in the capital Podgorica.

With the unanimous decision by the government, Montenegro became the 50th state to recognize the mostly ethnic Albanian republic.

The US, Japan and nearly all EU states have already recognized Kosovo's independence.

Montenegro and Serbia was part of a common state until two years ago when a referendum to split the two entities was implemented.

Belgrade - Serbian newspapers on Thursday announced a "great diplomatic victory" following a UN decision to seek an advisory legal opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

"Serbia's first diplomatic triumph in New York," "Great diplomatic victory" and "Serbia's win: Kosovo at the Court of Justice," mass- circulation dailies Blic and Vecernje Novosti trumpeted.

New York - Serbia on Wednesday asked the UN General Assembly to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told the 192-nation assembly that sending the request to the ICJ at The Hague would "prevent the Kosovo crisis from serving as a deeply problematic precedent in any part of the globe where secessionist ambitions are harboured."

Belgrade - Serbian archaeologists say a 7,500-year-old copper axe found at a Balkan site shows the metal was used in the Balkans hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.

The find near the Serbian town of Prokuplje shifts the timeline of the Copper Age and the Stone Age's neolithic period, archaeologist Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic told the independent Beta news agency.

The Hague  - A former Serb general accused of war crimes in the 1990s Balkan War did not act to stop attacks on civilians or seek punishment for perpetrators of those attacks, prosecutors said at the start of his trial on Thursday.

The trial of Serb General Momcilo Perisic before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had been set to start Wednesday, but was delayed due to a procedural error.