( FT ) - A US decision to supply weapons to Kosovo is an escalation of tensions and an added threat to the Serb minority in the breakaway Balkan state, Serbia's prime minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Thursday.
Mr Kostunica, who has put territorial integrity at the forefront of Serbian politics, told Vecernji Novosti newspaper: "Kosovo doesn't need new arms. It needs new negotiations because that is the only way that guarantees keeping peace and stability in the region."
Serbia's defence ministry, although controlled by the government's pro-western faction, agreed that the US was "pouring oil onto flames" with the light-weapons delivery.
George W Bush, the US president, on Wednesday authorised arms supply to Kosovo as a normal step in government-to-government relations following the US recognition of the new state, the White House said.
In a memo to the US state department, Mr Bush said: "I hereby find that the furnishing of defence articles and defence services to Kosovo will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace."
Kosovo continues to be limited to a lightly armed security force of 2,500 personnel without tanks or warplanes, as specified in the "Ahtisaari plan" for internationally-supervised independence.
The plan by the UN envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, insists on EU-led political and human-rights supervision and a continued Nato-led peacekeeping presence. But Serbia's ally, Russia, blocked the package at the UN Security Council last year, leading the Kosovar leadership to go around the UN with support from the US and leading EU members.
The arms delivery would help Kosovo deter or fight terrorists, a US official said. Serb defence analysts, in contrast, described it as a dangerous escalation, while Kosovo Serb leaders said it could justify "equivalent assistance" to them from Belgrade and Moscow.
Anti-independence protestors clashed with United Nations police and Nato troops in mainly Serb northern Kosovo on Monday, leaving dozens on both sides injured and one Ukrainian UN policeman dead.
Mr Kostunica decried what he called the US's "politics of force", insisting Washington's intention has been to turn Serbia's ethnic Albanian-dominated province into a "Nato state" ever since the war in 1999, when Nato warplanes pushed Yugoslav forces to withdraw.
He urged the US to "go back to respecting international law and the charter of the United Nations ... instead of additionally arming Albanians."