(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-27 09:02

BELGRADE, Serbia -- Serbia's parliament overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Wednesday that threatens to halt the country's integration into the European Union and cut off diplomatic ties with Western countries if they recognize Kosovo's independence.

Serbs protest in the ethnically divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica, 18 December 2007, during a rally against EU leaders' plans to deploy around 1,800 police and prosecutors to Kosovo. Serbian lawmakers are expected to endorse on Wednesday a resolution underlining their opposition to Kosovo's independence and warning of repercussions for the Balkan country's European integration. [Agencies]

The resolution -- passed with 220 votes in favor, 14 against and three abstentions -- also obliges Serbian officials to reject Kosovo's statehood and denounces NATO for allegedly supporting the separatist Kosovo Albanians.

Ethnic Albanians, who account for about 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, have said they would proclaim independence early next year.

The US and several EU states have said they would recognize Kosovo's independence because it has not been under Serbia's control since 1999, when NATO intervened to stop former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's military crackdown against the separatists.

Serbia insists Kosovo -- considered the cradle of Serbia's medieval state and religion -- should remain part of its territory, and has urged more negotiations with Kosovo Albanians.

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During a fiery debate in Parliament, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica accused the US of blocking efforts to find a compromise with ethnic Albanians by its open support of Kosovo's independence.

"America is openly striving for the destruction of the international order," Kostunica told the parliament. "America, which once seemed like a symbol of freedom, now advocates the policies of force."

Serbia's pro-Western President, Boris Tadic, was more moderate in his speech, saying Serbia must strive to keep Kosovo, but that it should not give up "its European future" along the way.

The resolution says Serbia must "reconsider" diplomatic ties with Western countries that recognize Kosovo's statehood. It says that, because of NATO's support for Kosovo's independence, Serbia must remain outside the Western military alliance.

The document also said the possible signing of a pre-membership trade and aid deal with the European Union in January "must be in the function of preserving the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Kostunica clarified that Serbia would not join the EU if the bloc recognized Kosovo's independence.

"Serbia can join any integration only as a whole and not a truncated country," Kostunica said.