Rioters burn U.S. embassy in Belgrade

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serb protesters ransacked and set fireto the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday, venting anger atU.S. support for Kosovo's declaration of independence.

A charred body was found in the U.S. embassy, but all U.S.personnel had been accounted for, a U.S. official said.

Riot police eventually dispersed the rampaging protestersbut Washington was furious over the lack of security for itsembassy in the Serbian capital.

"I'm outraged by the mob attack," said the U.S. ambassadorto the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, adding he would askthe Security Council to condemn it unanimously.

Hospital officials said 97 people were injured in thestreet clashes, including 32 police and a Dutch reporter.

Serbia considers Kosovo its historic heartland and haswaged a diplomatic campaign against the secession of thepredominantly ethnic Albanian region, which declaredindependence on Sunday.

Local agencies reported lesser attacks on other diplomaticmissions, including those of Britain, Germany, Turkey, Croatiaand Bosnia, but none was entered.

Gangs vandalised shops and banks, especially Western ones,and there was some looting, marring a state-backed rally by upto 200,000 Serbs against Kosovo's secession.

"As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia," Prime MinisterVojislav Kostunica told the crowd in front of the old Yugoslavparliament building.

"We're not alone in our fight. President (Vladimir) Putinis with us," he said, paying tribute to the Russian leader whohas opposed U.S. and European states' recognition of Kosovo.

The "people's rally" was Serbia's biggest since protestersfilled the streets in 1999 to protest at NATO bombing and thenin October 2000, when they stormed the same parliament buildingto oust nationalist autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.

The atmosphere at the rally had been subdued as Serbs ofall ages listened to speeches, melancholic patriotic songs andpoems about Kosovo, seen as the birthplace of a medievalkingdom and Serbia's religious roots.

NO POLICE

Police, nowhere to be seen when the U.S. embassy wasattacked, moved in half an hour later, firing teargas andbeating and detaining rioters to disperse the crowd.

The building had been closed and boarded up after riotersstoned it on Sunday.

Police in armoured vans secured the streets and tried tocordon off the whole embassy district. People tried to fleeclouds of teargas.

Serbian President Boris Tadic appealed for calm, calling onprotesters to quit the streets and stop attacking embassies,saying: "This only keeps Kosovo distant from Serbia."

Rioters -- many wearing balaclavas and scarves to hidetheir faces -- had attacked the U.S. embassy with sticks andmetal bars after destroying two guard boxes outside.

They ripped metal grilles from windows and tore a handrailoff the entrance to use as a battering ram and gain entry.

One man climbed up to the first floor, ripped the Stars andStripes off its pole and briefly put up a Serbian flag.

Other people jumped up and down on the balcony, holding upa Serbian flag as the crowd below of about 1,000 people cheeredthem on, shouting "Serbia, Serbia".

Black smoke billowed out of the embassy. Papers and chairswere thrown out of the windows, with doors wedged in the windowframes and burning.

Some 200 riot police arrived later, driving the crowd away.Some protesters sat on the ground, bleeding. Fire enginesarrived to put out the flames, local media reported.

PRAYERS

Meanwhile, the main rally proceeded as planned with a marchto the city's biggest Orthodox cathedral for a prayer service.

State television switched between scenes of the rioting andthe serenity of choral singing at the church service.

Small groups of looters, many drunk, broke into streetkiosks and shops, taking cigarettes, chocolate and shoes.

News agencies said foreign banks and McDonalds fast-foodstores were also attacked and eight city buses damaged.

The lack of passion at the main rally appeared to supportcomments by Western analysts and some ordinary people that mostSerbs were bitter but resigned to the loss of Kosovo and tiredof years of conflict with neighbouring states.

"I don't think this protest might change anything, but Idon't see any other way to express my dissatisfaction," saidDanica, a government employee who declined to give her surname.

In other protests, several hundred Serb army veterans at aborder post between Kosovo and Serbia stoned Kosovo riot policebefore dispersing. No one was hurt.

In Banja Luka in the Bosnian Serb Republic, several peoplewere hurt when protesters clashed with police at the U.S.consulate.

(Additional reporting by Matt Robinson on the Kosovo-Serbiaborder, Olja Stanic in Banja Luka, Ksenija Prodanovic inBelgrade; Writing by Richard Meares; Editing by Stephen Weeks)