The prospect of a new Balkans conflict came closer last night after Serbia made threats of “war” with the breakaway province of Kosovo.

After a four-month peace initiative failed to resolve the fate of the disputed territory, European diplomats, and even the Pope, made fresh appeals for Serbs and Albanians to avoid violence.

Nato foreign ministers will meet in Brussels today to discuss contingency measures should violence flare.

Concerns grew after Aleksandar Simic, adviser to Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister, said that his country would defend its sovereignty “using all means” at its disposal.

“The State has no recourse other than war when someone does not respect the UN Security Council,” he told Serbian state television.

“Serbia has had negative experiences from certain armed clashes during the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, and this is why we are more prudent and cautious now, but, of course, state interests are defended by war,” said Mr Simic, a member of the Serb negotiating team.

His remarks provoked an angry response from Wolfgang Ischinger, the Germany Ambassador to London and EU peace envoy, whose 120-day diplomatic mission to find a settlement to the dispute expires at the weekend.

He insisted that he, and two colleagues from Russia and America, had left “no stone unturned” in their search to accommodate Serbia's demands that Kosovo remain part of its territory, and the aspirations of the majority Albanian population who want Kosovo to become independent.

Mr Ischinger said yesterday that it was “inadmissible and intolerable” that even before his report was submitted to the United Nations, one of the parties was already muttering darkly about a new war.

Nevertheless, the outburst of the Serb official simply reflected the sentiments of many of his countrymen, who believe that the West is about to create a new state at the expense of their sovereign territory.

Once the failure of the peace mission is formally reported to the UN Security Council, Kosovo could win its independence in the coming weeks.

America is already committed to the move. Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, said yesterday there was a “logic” to it.

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