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NATO is watching and ready to intervene if stability in Kosovo is threatened, the alliance's deputy secretary general Mircea Joana said, hours after local Serbs announced they were withdrawing from the country's parliament, administration and courts.

The reason for the boycott was the threat of the Kosovo government to sanction local Serbs who refuse to change their Serbian car registration numbers to Kosovo ones.

With the insistence that Pristina approve the creation of an Association of Serbian Municipalities, Serbian policemen also walked off duty, forcing their other colleagues to extend their shifts from 8 to 12 hours.

Vucic has postponed all his visits abroad because of what is happening in Kosovo

In the northern part of the city of Mitrovica, which is inhabited by Serbs, there are no policemen to be seen anywhere, only Italian gendarmes who are part of the peacekeeping mission of NATO - KFOR, reports the Reuters agency.

KFOR numbers about 3,700 people.

After discussing the situation with the EU's special representative for the Western Balkans, Miroslav Lajcak, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Joana called on the governments of Serbia and Kosovo to show restraint and not allow an escalation of tensions, BNR notes.

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Serbia