Document dispute prolongs Kosovo-Serbia trade row

PRISTINA/BELGRADE (Reuters) - A dispute over documents prevented goods moving freely across the border between Kosovo and Serbia on Monday, the remains of a trade embargo that has led to violence in the past two months between Kosovo's Albanian majority and Serb minority.

Kosovo, which lifted its ban on trade with Serbia last week under a European Union-mediated deal, accused Belgrade of not implementing its side of the agreement.

"Over 180 trucks have entered Kosovo since it (Kosovo) has decided to lift reciprocity measures... Unfortunately Serbia has not started with the implementation of the agreement," Kosovo's trade minister, Mimoza Kusari Lila, told Reuters.

"There were two trucks with regular documents issued by Kosovo customs but they were turned back by Serb authorities during the weekend. The drivers were told that no order arrived from Belgrade to let Kosovo exports pass."

In Belgrade, Serbian government spokesman Milivoje Mihajlovic said imports from Kosovo were allowed, on condition that they came with the necessary documents agreed with the EU.

"Every truck which has documents with a stamp which has been agreed in Brussels on September 2 and has appropriate documentation which does not imply Kosovo's final status is (now) passing the Serbian border without any problems," Mihajlovic told Reuters.

"I want to stress that the design of the stamp was agreed in Brussels and that we have absolutely no problems to implement that agreement," he said.

Kusari Lila said the Kosovo government would give Serbia a few more days to implement the accord. "If that does not happen ... we will restart the ban on Serbian products."

Kosovo banned all imports from Serbia in July and imposed a 10 percent tax on imports from Bosnia as both countries were blocking exports from Kosovo.

Belgrade said it was blocking Kosovo goods because it opposed Kosovo's independence and refused to recognise documents bearing the name of the Republic of Kosovo.

The trade dispute and Kosovo's attempts to gain control over its largely lawless northern part, mainly populated by Serbs, have led to violence during which one Albanian police officer was killed and Serb mobs burnt a border post.

Northern Kosovo, a region of about 60,000 mainly ethnic Serbs does not recognise Kosovo's independence and remains loyal to Belgrade. A further 60,000 Serbs are living in enclaves scattered around Kosovo.

Kosovo, most of whose 1.7 million people are ethnic Albanians, has been recognised by more than 80 countries, including the United States and most of the EU, since 2008.

On Monday, local Serbs maintained roadblocks, while NATO peacekeepers used helicopters to drop leaflets warning them that barricades were illegal.

At Merdare, a border crossing with Serbia, a Kosovo customs officer said imports from Serbia were mainly construction material and that trucks that had brought goods to Kosovo over the past two days were returning empty.

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign halted a Serb counter-insurgency war against ethnic Albanian rebels.

Belgrade is under pressure to mend ties with Kosovo to gain EU candidate status in October. The Kosovo issue will also affect a Serbian parliamentary election due next year as Serbs are sensitive about the future of their former southern province, cherished as their historic heartland.

Kosovo and Serbia will hold a new round of talks on practical cooperation at the end of September, which will likely show whether the trade row has done lasting damage.

The EU-mediated talks target a tangle of problems crucial to Kosovo's daily existence, which are a legacy of Serbia's refusal to recognise its secession in 2008, but sidestep the question of Kosovo's independence.

The new round will focus on electricity supplies, a separate telephone dialling code for Kosovo and its access to regional organisations, which is so far blocked by Serbia.

In Brussels, Kosovo's minister for European integration, Vlora Citaku, said expectations for an agreement were low because of Serbia's failure to fully implement the trade deal.

"I hope we will be able to enter a new phase. Unfortunately, with what we have witnessed in the last few days ... I am worried," Citaku told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Branislav Krstic in Mitrovica; Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Tim Pearce and Rosalind Russell)