ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION
NATO troops in Kosovo (KFOR) fired teargas to disperse hundreds of Serbs blocking a contested border crossing with Serbia, and used armoured vehicles in a bid to remove makeshift barriers.
German and Austrian troops in full riot gear moved to dismantle the roadblock near the village of Jagnjenica, just outside the town of Zubin Potok, about 100 kilometres north of Pristina.
There have been previous clashes over the blocked borders between protesters and troops from KFOR, who have patrolled Kosovo since Serbian forces withdrew in 1999 and a U.N. administration took over. A European Union mission (EULEX) replaced it in 2008.
The Kosovo Serbs, who do not recognize Kosovo's 2008 independence declaration from Serbia, put up barricades on two disputed border points with Serbia in July, when Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated authorities tried to take them over.
Serbia still effectively runs Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, but is under pressure to help resolve the impasse after the European Commission conditioned future EU accession talks on Belgrade's cooperation with Kosovo's government.
Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign halted a crackdown on ethnic Albanian civilians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.
More than 80 countries, including the United States and most of the EU, have recognized Kosovo as a sovereign country.