The vote on the document was preceded by an address by President Boris Tadic who stressed that peace and stability were the most important principles of Serbia's policy and that Serbs in Kosovo could be protected only by peace.

"Serbia is a country of peace, Serbia wants peace for all peoples in Southeast Europe, not just for Serbs, that is the central tenet of our policy," he said, adding that Serbia could ensure also its sovereignty in Kosovo only by securing the support of big powers and important factors in the international community.

Commenting on Serbian Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolic's statement "If the Supreme Commander says that Serbia will not wage a war, how can he protect the Serb people?", made in parliament earlier in the day, Tadic said the statement was very dangerous because Nikolic was possibly implying that he should have said something different.

Tadic stressed that the very idea of violence in Serbia must always be politically attacked.

Speaking of the conduct of international representatives during the latest developments in the north of Kosovo, Tadic said that some representatives of the international community had encouraged the administration in Pristina to take "forcible unilateral steps related to taking over administrative border crossings."

"I think that that policy is dangerous and that those international representatives bear their share of responsibility. Anyone playing with the idea of war in Western Balkans is responsible, they are either guilty or not aware of what they are playing with. We, who experienced war, bombing and suffering, we know very well how dangerous such a political game is," said Tadic.

He added that as Serbia's president, he had the right to request all international representatives to exercise restraint in the current political crisis and to not take the risk of assuming responsibility for the current situation, but rather act clearly, in line with their own mandate of status neutrality.

"If it happens to be true that EULEX (EU rule of law mission in Kosovo) chief (Xavier) De Marnhac today said that EULEX respects Kosovo's constitution and laws and supports the establishment of customs control, then he has violated EULEX's status neutrality, and I want to make that clear," Tadic said, asking the international community to restore in Kosovo the situation that existed before the latest developments.

The debate in the Serbian parliament about the declaration on Kosovo and its adoption came after NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, KFOR, took over control of the border crossings Jarinje and Brnjak on the Serbia-Kosovo border, after which NATO on Thursday declared the two locations areas to which access is restricted, threatening to use weapons in case they were attacked.

Local Serbs on Friday set up roadblocks on roads leading from Kosovska Mitrovica to the two border crossings, thus blocking the passage of KFOR vehicles, which led to additional tensions and prompted KFOR to close down the two crossing points.