At a rally of the Party of the Democratic Left, Mrs Markovic, who leads the JUL (Yugoslav United Left) party, told cheering students that all forms of resistance should be used against the US.

"Serbs will not allow themselves to suffer the fate of the Red Indians two centuries ago," Mrs Markovic said, at a rally covered by Serbian state television.

"They will not be made into European Kurds. They will not accept the role of new Jews without putting up a fierce fight."

She said that as a small nation, the Serbs must be wise.

"Only the big powers can afford to be stupid," she said.

"I hope that by combining these two advantages, experience and brains, we will be able to avoid the fate of the Red Indians, Negroes, Kurds and Jews - but also the fate of some developed European people who pretend not to see that instead of globalisation it is colonisation which is taking place," Mrs Markovic said.