Serbs in north Kosovo have resisted a demand by Nato peacekeepers to remove more than a dozen roadblocks in a months-long stand-off over control of two disputed border crossings.
Nato's peacekeeping force (Kfor) had given minority Serbs until today to remove barricades erected in July when Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated authorities tried to take control of the border points.
But as of today, the barricades were still there, and Nato pulled out its convoy of trucks and armored personnel carriers that had been ordered to travel to the contested Brnjak border crossing, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Pristina.
"We've been given orders to go back, as we cannot go through barricades," a Nato commander in the field told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Serbs in the north reject Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, and on Tuesday they came out in larger numbers to man roadblocks that have forced Nato to take to helicopters to supply the disputed border gates.
Serbs have called on Nato to postpone any operation until tomorrow, when community leaders will meet to discuss a possible compromise solution.
"There will be no Kfor actions today or tomorrow until representatives of (Serb) municipalities agree on how to end the impasse," Slavisa Ristic, mayor of the nearby town of Zubin Potok, said in a TV broadcast.
In September, Nato used helicopters to bypass the barricades and establish a skeleton EU and Kosovo police and customs presence at the border gates.
But the roadblocks remain, in a challenge to the West's efforts to reverse Kosovo's de facto ethnic partition.
Serbia effectively runs northern Kosovo, but is under pressure to help resolve the impasse after the European Commission conditioned future EU accession talks on Belgrade's co-operation on Kosovo
Previous attempts to remove the barricades have ended in violent clashes.
Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 when Nato bombed for 78 days to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian forces in a two-year counter-insurgency war.
More than 80 countries, including the United States and most of the European Union, have recognised the new country.
Reuters