Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo's tense north on Tuesday blocked for the second consecutive day the two border crossings with Serbia over Pristina's ban on Serbian registration plates.
The tensions were triggered by the Kosovo government's decision on Monday to oblige drivers with Serbian plates to put on temporary ones when entering Kosovo.
Pristina justified the ban over Serbia's refusal to allow cars with Republic of Kosovo plates to enter the country as they imply its status as an independent nation, something bitterly disputed by Serbia.
On the other hand, vehicles with Serbian registration plates have been entering Kosovo freely until now and Pristina claims that its ban is just a reciprocal measure.
About 700 protesters stayed overnight in tents they set up just next to the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings defying special police deployed there, according to an AFP reporter.
Dozens of trucks blocked the roads towards the crossings causing long queues on both sides of the border.
Kosovo media report that goods transit has also been stopped while buses take passengers to road blockades leaving them to cross the border on foot.
The Kosovo government on Sunday sent a special police unit and armoured vehicles to the tense border area to monitor the implementation of the ban.
Police are for now just warning cars with Serbian plates to take provisional ones, the AFP journalist said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said "either Kosovo and Serbia are both right, or both are wrong" over the issue.
"So, either we will keep both types of these (provisional) license plates for both countries, or let Kosovo and Serbia remove them," Kurti said in a statement after meeting ambassadors of the US and four European countries.
Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla called ethnic Serbs to end the blockades and tweeted they are "safe and protected".
But EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak on Twitter voiced concern and called for an "immediate deescalation".
"It's important to reduce tensions, restore a peaceful atmosphere and allow for freedom of movement."
Serbia's top security body called for the "withdrawal of all troops from northern Kosovo, the return to the situation as it was before this intervention," President Aleksandar Vucic said after it held an emergency meeting.
"It is only after that we can go to Brussels and discuss," he told reporters referring to the EU-mediated talks.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a decade after the war between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serbian forces.
