Serb alert for Kosovo border troops

Tensions do still occasionally rise in Kosovo

By Matthew Price BBC Belgrade correspondent

The Serbian authorities have announced that they are putting their police and army units which patrol the border with Kosovo on a state of alert.

The Serbian prime minister says Serb forces should return to Kosovo

The announcement follows rising tension in the area over recent days.

The United Nations - which is in charge of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo - says it has no information which would suggest that a forthcoming attack is likely.

The Serbian authorities say they are reacting to information they have received that terrorists, in their words, are getting ready in Kosovo to head into southern Serbia.

Tension 'declined'

The information, they say, comes from the United Nations mission in Kosovo, or Unmik.

A spokesman for Unmik told BBC News Online he was not aware that any information to that effect had been passed to the Serb authorities and he said there is nothing to suggest an attack is likely to take place.

Overall, it is felt that tension in Kosovo has dramatically declined since the conflict there between Serb forces and the majority ethnic Albanian population in the late 1990s.

However from time to time tension does rise and it appears to be doing so right now.

Dangerous game

Recently around one-third of MPs in Kosovo's parliament supported a motion on independence, although that was later put on the back burner.

And just the other day the Serbian prime minister said that Serb forces should be allowed to return to Kosovo.

Some dismiss the moves on both sides as playing politics.

In the Balkans that can be a dangerous game.