The US is to withdraw all non-essential staff and their families from Serbia amid growing anti-Western violence prompted by Kosovo's declaration of independence at the weekend.

After a riotous mob in the capital Belgrade forced their way into the American embassy and torched it last night - as well as vandalising the British, German, Croatian and Turkish embassies - Cameron Munter, the American ambassador, said the US would carry out an "ordered departure" of non-core personnel.

Meanwhile, against a backdrop of more clashes in the divided Kosovan town of Mitrovica today, a war of words began between America and Russia after the Russian foreign ministry claimed that the Kosovans bore responsibility for the violence.

"What happened yesterday in Belgrade can only be a cause for regret," Mikhail Kamynin, a foreign ministry spokesman, told the Interfax news agency.

"But we would like to point out that those forces that supported Kosovo’s proclamation of independence should have been aware of the consequences of such a step."

Serbian anger has been directed towards the West since Kosovo declared its independence from Kosovo.

In 1999, Nato used airstrikes against Yugoslavia to halt a campaign of represssion against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.

Nicholas Burns, the US Assistant Secretary of State, today accused Russia of being less than helpful in the current crisis.

"They’re not in Kosovo, they’re not doing anything to help the Kosovars. So they’re kind of on the sidelines, contributing mostly unhelpfully," he told the Fox News station.

Meanwhile, tension on the streets increased further today, with Serb protesters clashing with UN police in violent clashes in ethnically divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica.

During the clashes, a mob of protesters hurled firecrackers and flares at a bridge that UN troops were guarding. But security forces, along with the UN and local Kosovo police, said they had managed to push them back and "isolate them from the crowd," the AFP news agency reported.

Kosovan police confirmed that a further group of Serbs who were travelling to Kosovo on buses to protest had been turned back at the Jarinje border crossing, which was one of two posts torched and destroyed on Tuesday by at least 1,000 Serbs from both Serbia and Kosovo.

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