The European Union called upon Serbia to do everything in its powers to protect the foreign embassies in Belgrade and said the ongoing violence will have a negative impact the efforts to improve Belgrade-EU relations, Reuters reported.

“The embassies have to be protected and this is a duty of the country in which they are at,” EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana told reporters after the meeting of EU defense ministers, in relation to the February 21 2008 assault on the US embassy in Belgrade.

Matters had to calm down before the EU could restart talks that would bring Serbia closer to signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which is the first step on the path to EU accession, Solana said.

At least 118 people were injured during the riots in the streets of Belgrade, including a Dutch journalist, who suffered three broken ribs.

After a largely peaceful rally held in Belgrade under the slogan “Kosovo is Serbia”, several hundred protesters attacked the embassies of the US, Croatia, the UK, Belgium, Canada, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Luxurious stores situated in Belgrade's central square of Terazije were looted, Dnevnik daily reported.