Kosovo hardliner calls for blockade of border with Serbia

(TIRANA) - A hardline Kosovo opposition leader called Wednesday on Albanians to take part in a blockade of the border with Serbia this weekend to prevent Serb products from entering the breakaway territory.

Albin Kurti, a member of Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanian community, called on "all Albanians" to join the action to be organised by his nationalist Self-determination movement at two border posts with Serbia on Saturday.

"We are going to make a human barricade day and night in order to block all traffic" at the Merdare and Kamenica border posts in northern Kosovo, Kurti told reporters in the Albanian capital Tirana.

Speaking in Kosovo's capital Pristina, prime minister Hashim Thaci condemned Kurti's call as "unacceptable."

"Kosovo's future lies in integration, not barricades. The announced action for violent acts against the legal institutions of Kosovo is unacceptable," Thaci said after a cabinet meeting.

Belgrade and Pristina have been at loggerheads over bilateral trade ever since Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008.

However in September, after months of negotiations mediated by the EU, the two sides agreed to implement a free trade agreement.

Kurti, a die-hard opponent of any negotiations with Serbia, has called for a unification of Kosovo and Albania.