MITROVICA (Kosovo) - SERBS tossed two hand grenades and shot at European Union police officers who used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse a crowd on Monday, in the gravest incident since the EU took over policing Kosovo from the United Nations last year.

Only minor injuries were reported, a spokesman for the EU police mission said.

Dozens of Nato peacekeepers in riot gear and armoured vehicles were rushed in to support police after protesters broke through Kosovo police lines trying to stop the building of homes for ethnic Albanians in Kosovo's tense north. Shots were also fired in the direction EU police officers.

Monday's incident follows a similar one Saturday at the same construction site in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica.

Serbs have conditioned the return of ethnic Albanians in northern Kosovo with the return of Serbs to the Albanian-run south.

The beleaguered minority resists the deployment of EU's rule of law mission because it was made possible under a plan that opened the way for Kosovo to declare independence from Serbia.

Mitrovica is Kosovo's ethnic hot spot where the ethnic Albanian majority that runs the southern part of the town often clashes with Serbs that control Kosovo's north that borders the rest of Serbia.

Kosovo's drive for independence has received strong backing from the United States and major European Union nations and 58 countries have so far recognized Kosovo as an independent country. -- AP