SERBIA walked out of EU-brokered talks with breakaway Kosovo today after Kosovar Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic was gunned down early in the morning.

Mr Ivanovic was shot near the offices of his Citizens’ Initiative party in Mitrovica, hitting him at least five times. He was rushed to hospital but doctors were unable to save him.

The assassins fled in a car that was later found burnt out.

After an emergency security meeting in Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic demanded the UN, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and other international missions in Kosovo investigate the “terrorist act.”

“Serbia will take all necessary measures so the killer or killers are found,” he vowed.

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, on a visit to neighbouring Montenegro, stressed: “The most important thing is to preserve stability in the north of Kosovo,” where Serbs are in the majority. Ethnic Albanians form the majority in the rest of Kosovo.

“When the stability of northern Kosovo is jeopardised, the stability of all of Kosovo and the whole region is under threat,” he said. “This is a big blow to the interests of the Serbian people in Kosovo.”

Kosovar President Hashim Thaci condemned the killing and called on citizens to co-operate with the police.

Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj warned against “exploiting this tragic act for daily political goals, even to block processes aiming at normalising ties between two countries.”

Hard-line opposition parties have violently disrupted parliament to block border demarcation deals with other former Yugoslav states.

But Mr Haradinaj insisted Kosovo remained “powerfully set in its Euro-Atlantic path” — membership of the EU and Nato.

OSCE mission head Jan Braathu described Mr Ivanic as “among the most prominent Kosovo Serb representatives for almost two decades” and “a valued interlocutor in Kosovo.”

“This will be a major test for rule of law in Kosovo,” he warned.

UN mission head Zahir Tanin urged authorities to “work swiftly and effectively” and assured them that “all the international agencies on the ground are ready to support the authorities in any manner which may assist the swift apprehension of those responsible.”

Kosovo broke away in 1999 after Nato blitzed Serbia in support of the Kosovo Liberation Army campaign launched the previous year. The territory’s 2008 independence claim is not recognised by Serbia or 80 other nations, including some Nato and EU member states.