Tensions have mounted in the north as Kosovo’s government tries to stamp its authority over this largely lawless area, home to 60,000 ethnic Serbs, who want to stop Kosovo deploying its own police and customs at the Serbian border.

Mostly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo is Serbia’s former southern province and declared independence in 2008 after a 1998-99 war and years under United Nations rule. The country is still patrolled by KFOR and EU law and justice mission, EULEX.

At a roadblock in the village of Zupce, about 80 km north of Kosovo’s capital Pristina, Serbs sat in the road in front of armored personnel carriers and an infantry cordon.

In the nearby village of Jagnjenica, Serbs parked trucks across the road to the Brnjak crossing, reinforcing a barricade there. KFOR troops tried and failed to get a bulldozer past meters-high earth and gravel barricades, a human shield and the trucks.

Talks aimed at resolving the deadlock between local Serb leaders, KFOR commander General Erhard Drews and Xavier Bout de Marnhac, the head of the European Union mission (EULEX), ended without results, said Dragisa Milovic, the mayor of the northern town of Zvecan.

“This problem must be resolved on a higher level and this is our message to Belgrade, we want to hear from (Serbia’s) President Boris Tadic,” Milovic said. “This problem cannot be solved through force and violence.”

De Marnhac said he insisted on the establishment of the freedom of movement which he described as a European standard.

“We expect the freedom of movement to be re-established for everyone,” De Marhnac said. “Those who put up the roadblocks should bring them down, this is also expected by all member states of the EU.”

The EULEX mission was established in 2008 to assist and support the Kosovo authorities to establish the rule of law and improve police, judiciary and customs.

Earlier this week KFOR used tear gas to disperse Serbs at a barricade along a network of roads leading to the Brnjak border post. Eight peacekeepers and about two dozen civilians were slightly injured in the scuffles.

Hard-line Serb leaders from northern Kosovo defied NATO calls to remove roadblocks and called for Belgrade to send in Serbian troops and police.

In Belgrade, Tadic asked NATO to refrain from violence and Kosovo Serbs to secure freedom of movement for peacekeepers.

Serbia holds parliamentary elections in 2012 and Kosovo, seen by Serbs as their historic heartland, will be a hot issue.

Serbia still effectively runs Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, but is under pressure to resolve the impasse and mend ties with Pristina if it wants the European Commission to approve its candidacy for joining EU.

More than 80 countries, including the United States and most EU states, have recognized Kosovo as a sovereign country.