Ethnic Serbs wearing hoods and masks attacked and set fire to the Jarinje security post on Kosovo's northern border with Serbia on July 27 2011, international and Serbian media reported.

They reject Kosovan independence and were protesting over attempts by police to take control of the border, the BBC said.

After the Kosovo police withdrew, it appeared a deal had been struck and there was a lull, but the Serbs attacked again in the early evening.

United States KFOR peacekeepers in armoured vehicles deployed at the border post and at the Brnjak border post.

Serbian president Boris Tadić reacted quickly to the news by calling for an immediate end to violence at Jarinje, Belgrade-based website B92 said. 

"Hooligans who are causing violence are not the ones who defend the citizens or the state of Serbia," said Tadić, and called on all Serbs in Kosovo to show restraint. 

Serbian minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović and Belgrade Kosovo talks team chief Borislav Stefanović, who were at Brnjak, arrived at Jarinje. 

Bogdanović strongly condemned the violence and called on Serbs not to allow groups of extremists to cause clashes. 

News agency Reuters reported KFOR as saying in a statement that "it was confirmed that an act of arson was committed against that position ... There have also been confirmed reports of shots fired at KFOR personnel in the vicinity".

The current crisis in northern Kosovo started on July 25 when the Kosovo authorities reportedly ordered Kosovo police to take over Jarinje and Brnjak.