Serbia has demanded that an election be held and ethnic Serbs return to police and judiciary in a Serb-populated northern region of Kosovo where tensions have fueled fears of instability and new armed clashes.

Kosovo plans to exercise full sovereignty over its own affairs and will resist western pressure to compromise with former governing power Serbia, the prime minister of the Balkan nation has said.

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti has held Serbia accountable for trying to annex part of its territory through an incursion of an armed group that killed a police officer in a shootout last year.