Kosovo has said it is ready to hold new elections in Serb-majority municipalities. Protests erupted in four northern municipalities after Kosovo appointed ethnic Albanian mayors who were elected with only 4.3 percent of voters.
Local elections were boycotted by Serbs, who make up the majority of the region's population. Serbs in northern Kosovo reject the declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after the end of the war there, and still consider Belgrade as their capital.