Kosovo leader calls on Spain to back EU measures against Serbia

Kosovo's president called on Thursday for Spain - the biggest EU state to withhold recognition of Kosovo's independence - to join other countries backing measures to punish Serbia over a deadly gunbattle between Kosovo forces and armed Serbs last month.

Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu spoke to reporters at the start of a summit hosted by Spain of the 47-member European Political Community, a body set up to discuss issues on the continent in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year.

"I do hope Spain will join other, like-minded countries to adopt measures towards Serbia for this horrendous act that it has committed against peace, stability and security," she said. "There is no reason to meet (with Serbia) before sanctions are adopted," she added.

Kosovo has sought international support since the Sept. 24 gunbattle, in which dozens of armed Serbs barricaded themselves inside a monastery. Three attackers and one Kosovo police officer were killed.

Serbia denies Kosovo's accusations that it supported the attackers. It detained and released a Kosovo Serb politician who acknowledged taking part.

Kosovo and Western countries have also accused Serbia of building up its military presence in the so-called Ground Safety Zone, a 5 km-wide (3-mile) strip inside Serbia along the Kosovo border, which Belgrade denies.

Kosovo, a former Serbian province with an ethnic Albanian majority, declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a guerrilla conflict and a 1999 NATO bombing campaign that drove out Serbian security forces.

Spain, concerned about a precedent spurring separatism in its own Catalonia region, is one of just five EU states that do not recognise Kosovo's independence; the others are Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Slovakia.