The Latest Breaking News from Ognen Teofilovski

NATO is prepared to deploy more troops to Kosovo to quell violence in the ethnically polarized north, the alliance's chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, adding that the first 700 reinforcement troops are on the way there.

The move came a day after tens of thousands of people from across Serbia and neighbouring Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia rallied in the centre of Belgrade in a show of support for Mr Vucic.

Kosovo and Serbia have reached an agreement on implementing an EU-backed deal to normalise ties after 12 hours of talks, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said late on Saturday, describing negotiations as difficult.

Ethnic fractures in the Western Balkans, including in Kosovo’s Serb-populated area, create trouble for the EU and US.

Envoys from the European Union and the United States have called on Kosovo and Serbia to remain calm and not fuel an ongoing ethnic crisis in Kosovo's north where local Serbs have erected barricades to prevent police movement.

Minority Serbs in the north of Kosovo said on Saturday they were quitting their posts in state institutions including the government, police and courts to protest Pristina's order for them to start using Kosovo vehicle licence plates.

Thousands of people protested in North Macedonia on Thursday as parliament prepared to vote on a French compromise deal for settling the country's disputes with Bulgaria, which would enable its long-due European Union membership talks to start.

Streets in Skopje, North Macedonia, were brought to a standstill on Friday because of protests against a proposed compromise deal with Bulgaria that would finally allow the Balkan country to begin long-awaited European Union membership talks.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called on Bulgaria to lift its veto on EU accession talks for North Macedonia, saying the bloc should avoid dashing the membership hopes of countries in Western Balkans.