NATO steps in as Serbs torch Kosovo border post

Pristina: NATO peacekeepers in newly independent Kosovo intervened on Tuesday as Serb mobs opposed to its secession attacked border posts and police fled.

Serbs burned down one border post and were attacking a second, a Kosovo police spokesman said.

Police manning the post called for help from the NATO peacekeeping force, KFOR, which said it was stepping in.

"KFOR is going to intervene now," a force spokesman said.

The violence highlights the challenge facing a European Union law enforcement mission preparing to deploy in the Albanian-majority territory which has been under UN administration for nearly nine years.

"We are inches from partition," said a Western official.

He said he believed it was "only a matter of time before KFOR closes the bridges" that cross the River Ibar in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica, dividing Kosovo Serbs from Albanians.