Nato soldiers on guard in Kosovo town after clashes

Dozens of Nato troops secured a municipal building in the Kosovo town of Zvecan on Tuesday, a day after 30 Nato soldiers and 52 Serb protesters were injured in clashes that European Union and Nato officials said were unacceptable as they urged calm.

ZVECAN, Kosovo - Kosovo police said in a statement that the situation is "fragile, but calm".

Russia said on Tuesday that "decisive steps" were needed to de-escalate tensions in Kosovo.

"We call on the West to finally silence its false propaganda and stop blaming incidents in Kosovo on Serbs driven to despair, who are peaceful, unarmed, trying to defend their legitimate rights and freedoms," Russia's foreign ministry said.

Unrest in the region has intensified since ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo's Serb-majority area after April elections the Serbs boycotted, a move that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.

The area's majority Serbs have never accepted Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, and consider Belgrade their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule.