Serbia plans to stage a mass protest rally in Belgrade today against Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Several hundred thousand people are expected to attend the rally, underlining Serb anger at the loss of their religious heartland following Kosovo's declaration of independence.
The planned so-called "People's Rally" in Belgrade is a government-sponsored event. Free trains will transport people from across Serbia to Belgrade for the rally, and schoolchildren are being given the day off.
State television RTS said all media had a duty to be patriotic and express the "national rage".
Sunday's declaration of independence by Kosovo, which has a 90 per cent ethnic Albanian majority, triggered protests in Serb cities and in neighbouring Bosnia's autonomous Serb half.
Analysts say it would be wrong to interpret Serbia's reaction as a return to the virulent nationalism that stoked war in the Balkans in the 1990s under the late Slobodan Milosevic.
Although Kosovo is an emotive issue for them, the bitterness felt by Serbs does not alter the fact that more than 70 per cent see their future in the European Union.