Goran Rakic

The president wants this to be the case "regardless of the further moves of Pristina."

This was stated by Serb List leader Goran Rakic.

Protesters rallied on Tuesday in the north of the divided town of Mitrovica, carrying placards with messages like "EU open your eyes", "All we are saying is give peace a chance", "They are beating and terrorising us", "We want peace - not new wars" and "Don't shut us in a ghetto".

The protest was attended by a large number of citizens of the northern part of the town, who were first addressed by the now former mayor, Goran Rakic, who, about an hour earlier, resigned along with other three Serb mayors in northern Kosovo.

The Serb mayor of North Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, told an extraordinary session of the local assembly in the northern Kosovo town on Tuesday that he is resigning because of Pristina's decision to increase import tariffs on Serbian goods and because of violations of the human rights of Serbs living in Kosovo. 

President Aleksandar Vucic has had extraordinary meetings with the army and police chiefs this morning.

Other security services, as well as commanders of special military and police units, also took part in these meetings.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has been criticised for again meeting  a controversial figure and power-broker in the Serb-run northern municipalities, Milan Radoicic.

The head of the Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb party, Lista Srpska, Goran Rakic and Radoicic - who was recently elected as the deputy head - met Haradinaj at his office on Thursday.

After Serbian state-owned news agency Tanjug reported that a delegation from the main Kosovo Serb political party Srpska Lista (Serbian List) was in Washington to meet officials from the State Department, Congress and the Pentagon, the State Department said that it did not have any such meeting to announce. 

The formation of the ZSO has been awaited for five years, as it is Pristina's obligation under the EU-brokered 2013 Brussels agreement.

The Kosovo minister of infrastructure, Pal Lekaj, is now threatening members of the Serb List with arrest should they form the ZSO.

Goran Rakic, the president of the main Kosovo Serb party, Srpska Lista, said on Tuesday that an Association of Serbian Municipalities will be set up independently from Pristina and that the party will leave the Kosovo government.

The formation of the ZSO is an obligation undertaken by the authorities in Pristina under the 2013 Brussels agreement, but it has not yet been fulfilled.

The announcement today was made by Goran Rakic, after representatives of the Serb List held a meeting in Belgrade with President Aleksandar Vucic, and Director of the Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Djuric.