U.N. versus Serbia in Kosovo railway shunting match

By Matt Robinson

ZVECAN, Kosovo (Reuters) - U.N. authorities in Kosovo halted a Serb train at the country's northern border on Tuesday after Serbia said it had "reclaimed" the railway track in the Serb north of its former province.

The U.N. chief administrator in Kosovo, German diplomat Joachim Ruecker, said the U.N. mission's intervention at the border "reverses the challenge" to its authority from Serbia.

Serbia on Monday said it had retaken responsibility for a 30-km stretch of track in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo.

It blocked one train from Pristina at the first mainly Serb town, Zvecan, and sent two of its own across the border.

Serbia has been pushing Kosovo's 120,000-strong Serb minority to reject all ties with the new state of Kosovo since the Albanian majority declared independence on Feb 17.

Despite the U.N. statement, dozens of Serbs again gathered on the tracks at Zvecan and staff could be seen wearing Serbian Railway uniforms and badges.

The train from Pristina, used mainly by minority Serbs travelling to work, study or shop in the north never left the capital. Kosovo Railways cited concern "for the safety of our workers, who were threatened yesterday".

The major Western powers backed Kosovo's declaration of independence nine years after NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces and halt the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year Serb counter-insurgency war.