SERBIAN and Kosovan leaders came together at the behest of the European Union today for emergency talks on ending violent clashes near their common border that have raised fears of a return to open conflict.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was holding “urgent meetings” in Brussels with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. 

It was unclear whether the two leaders were due to meet face to face or only separately with Mr Borrell.

“We need immediate de-escalation and new elections in the north with participation of Kosovo Serbs. This is paramount for the region and [the] EU,” he tweeted ahead of the talks. 

The 27-nation bloc has had little success in reconciling Serbia and Kosovo, which have been at odds for decades. 

A 1998-99 armed conflict between the forces of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was then the major component, and Kosovan rebels, left more than 10,000 people dead, mostly Kosovo Albanians. Belgrade has refused to recognise Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.

Tensions flared again last month after Kosovo’s police seized municipal buildings in the north of the country, where Serbs represent a majority, to install ethnic Albanian mayors who had won local elections overwhelmingly boycotted by the Serb population.

Serbia has put its troops on the border on the highest state of alert amid a series of recent clashes between Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo’s police and Nato-led international peacekeepers on the other. 

The tensions persisted last week, with three shock grenades exploding near police stations in the north of Kosovo while local Serbs staged protests in front of municipality buildings.

It took several days for Mr Borrell to persuade Mr Kurti and President Vucic to come to Brussels and even today the latter insisted that he would not enter discusssions with the Kosovan leader in Brussels.

“I have nothing to talk to him about,” Mr Vucic told broadcaster RTS. 

He said there could be no negotiations until Serbs who have been arrested by Kosovo police over attacks on police stations and Nato-led peacekeepers are set free.

Just four months ago, Mr Borrell came out of meetings with the pair to announce that Serbia and Kosovo had given tacit approval to a EU-sponsored plan to end months of political crises and help improve their ties in the longer term.

But the “deal” unravelled almost immediately, as both leaders failed to keep commitments that the EU foreign policy chief claimed they had made.