Belgrade and Priština should immediately take de-escalation steps in line with the EU's three-point plan, NATO assistant secretary general Thomas Goffus said on Wednesday, calling on both sides to immediately apply the Brussels agreement and the Ohrid annexe.

Kosovo and Serbia have ignored international calls to take steps to defuse tensions involving ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo which threatened NATO's peacekeeping force, Goffus told the press after separate meetings with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Vjosa Osmani.

Violence in the north of Kosovo, where 50,000 Serbs make up the majority, broke out late in May after ethnic Albanian mayors, assisted by police on Priština's instructions, took office after local elections which Serbs had boycotted.

There has been no progress towards de-escalation, which threatens the security of all people in Kosovo as well as NATO personnel, Goffus said.

He said 93 NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) troops were injured in clashes with protesters in the north of Kosovo on 29 May, although KFOR said earlier 30 were injured, while local doctors said over 50 protesting Serbs were injured.

Goffus said that was totally unacceptable and must not happen again, and that NATO made that position clear to the Serbian authorities also.

He said there was a visible decline in practical and political coordination with Kosovo and that this was against the Kosovo people's Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

Pointing to the Russian aggression on Ukraine, Goffus said Europe did not need a new conflict. No one should risk yet another conflict in Europe which would undermine the peace and stability achieved with so many victims, he added.

The United States and the European Union, which moderates the Belgrade-Priština dialogue, have intensified diplomatic efforts to prompt the two sides to defuse tensions and return to the negotiating table. They see Kurti as the dominant cause of the current crisis and find that his actions are not conducive to defusing tensions in the north.

EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Priština Dialogue Miroslav Lajcák said after meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Wednesday that they had “an honest and open conversation on the way forward, including the need for new local elections with the participation of Kosovo Serbs and return to the dialogue.”

“The meeting and the trip helped to get clarity about the next steps,” he said on Twitter.

Vucic said on Instagram he told Lajcák that the Serb people in Kosovo were exposed “to the most intense torture and persecution in the last 15 years” and reiterated his demand “for respecting their rights and security.”

He called on the international community to “become more concretely engaged on all issues.”