U.S. accuses Serbia of failing to protect embassies

BELGRADE (Reuters) - The United States accused Serbia onFriday of failing to protect embassies from attack over Westernsupport for Kosovo's independence, and the EU said suchviolence could damage Belgrade's prospects of closer ties.

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman said families of diplomats andsupport staff were being evacuated after rioters stormed thebuilding in Belgrade and set it on fire on Thursday. Theambassador and core staff would remain.

"They had an obligation to protect diplomatic missions andfrom what we can tell, the police presence was eitherinadequate or unresponsive at the time," U.S. Secretary ofState Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.

"We do hold the Serb government responsible. We've madethat very clear. We don't expect that to happen again," shesaid.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the "mob attacks" thatoccurred after a mass state rally over Kosovo. Serbia blamedthe violence on isolated vandals.

A young man was found dead in the U.S. embassy. TheBritish, German, Croatian and Turkish missions were alsoattacked.

"Things will have to calm down before we can recuperate theclimate that would allow for any contact to move on the SAA(Stabilisation and Association Agreement)," European Unionforeign policy chief Javier Solana said.

Brussels hopes to lure Serbs away from nationalism with therelative stability, prosperity and travel freedom thatcooperation with the bloc will bring. Its stance is complicatedby its commitment to Kosovo's independence -- declared onSunday and quickly recognised by Washington and many EU states.

Russia, Serbia's major power ally, said the West shouldhave anticipated a backlash over Kosovo, seen by Serbs as theirreligious heartland. The mostly ethnic Albanian region had beenunder U.N. rule since NATO drove out Serbian forces in 1999.

FLASHPOINT

"People who advocated a unilateral proclamation ofindependence for Kosovo should have calculated theconsequences," a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

In the flashpoint city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo,several thousand ethnic Serbs massed to taunt U.N. riot policeon the main bridge after a rally against Kosovo's independence.

A Reuters witness said the mostly young crowd was singingpatriotic Serbian songs and chanting anti-Albanian slogans.Some lobbed firecrackers towards the police who were blockingthe way to the bridge's southern end, in the Albanian part ofthe city.

EU officials in charge of laying the ground for the EUsupervisory mission in Kosovo had been moved from theSerb-dominated north because of security concerns, an officialtold Reuters on condition of anonymity.

City authorities said about 250,000 people attendedThursday's rally in Belgrade, listening to speeches and songs.Serbia's Interior Ministry put the number at half a million.

Several hundred young male rioters split off, smashed theirway into the U.S. embassy and set fire to part of the building,the second time in a week that it had been attacked.

A crowd of about 1,000 cheered "Serbia, Serbia" as oneripped the Stars and Stripes off its pole and others jumped upand down on a balcony, holding a Serbian flag.

Some 130 people were injured in street clashes, including50 police and some journalists, and almost 200 were arrested.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, whose fiery anti-Westernrhetoric has been at the forefront of Serbia's diplomaticbattle to keep Kosovo, said the peaceful rally "was magnificentand showed what the people of Serbia thought".

In a statement to state news agency Tanjug, he condemnedthe violence, saying it "directly inflicts damage to our fight"to protect national interests.

Liberal commentators have attacked him for stoking tensionin the hope the West would back off from supporting Kosovo soas not to risk a nationalist backlash in Serbia.

"This was a disgrace, it was hooliganism of the worstkind," said Miroslav Markovic, walking his dog past looted,damaged kiosks near Belgrade's train station. "The governmentshould have been prepared and not have encouraged thesepeople."

(Additional reporting by Matt Robinson in Mitrovica, DuskoMihailovic in Podgorica and Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade;Editing by Richard Meares)