"Ban on license plates against agreement"

The state secretary with the Ministry of Kosovo spoke on Wednesday to say that banning license plates with initials of towns in Kosovo would be "undoubtedly contrary to what the negotiating team presented as the results of the dialogue in Brussels".

In Pristina, Interior Minister Bajram Redzepi said today that vehicles with new Serbian license plates of Kosovo towns will not be able to enter Kosovo starting April 1.

"Starting June 1, vehicles with old Serbian plates with the initials of towns in Kosovo will also be banned from entering, so owners will have to re-register them by this date," reports quoted him as saying.

Ivanovic, however, stated that he was "certain that Serbs in northern Kosovo will not agree to take Kosovo documents".

"Our Constitution gives Serbs the right to use Serbian documents and have Serbian citizenship in the territory we consider ours," said Ivanovic.

He said the decision was aslo "not in accordance with the Ahtisaari plan and the Kosovo constitution, which is based on the plan".

Meanwhile in Pristina, a spokesperson for the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, has said that its members "temporarily withdrew" leaflets they were distributing at northern Kosovo administrative line checkpoints on Tuesday, notifying the citizens that they will "have to have KS or RKS registration plates on their vehicles instead of Serbian ones starting June 1".

"The leaflets were withdrawn temporarily to clarify their text and improve the way they are presented," Irina Gudeljevic told.

According to her, the leaflets were "in accordance with the freedom of movement agreement between Belgrade and Pristina reached on July 2,2011.

Gudeljevic said their "plans were based on that agreement and that it was normal to inform the people and give them enough time to find suitable solutions before any implementation".