PRISTINA — Kosovo on Friday passed laws to build an army, asserting its statehood in a US-backed move that prompted outrage in Serbia, which does not recognize its former province's independence.

Kosovo has been guarded by NATO-led peacekeeping troops since it broke away from Belgrade in a bloody separatist war in 1998-99.

Now, new legislation will transform a small crisis-response outfit, the Kosovo Security Force (KSF), into an defense army with 5,000 troops.

"This vote today begins a new era for our country," parliamentary Speaker Kadri Veseli announced as MPs embraced each other after the session, boycotted by minority Serb politicians.

The vote has delighted many Kosovo Albanians, with several hundred gathering in the main street of capital Pristina to celebrate the army as a new pillar of their independence, declared in 2008.

"This is an enormous emotion, we are happy that the creation of our country is being completed," Vlora Rexhepi, a 23-year-old student, told AFP as a group of musicians dressed in traditional costumes played for the crowd.

Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci hailed it as "the best gift for the end of the year season".

"We are finally closing down the state-building process," he wrote on Facebook.

'Crossed the line'

While it will take years for the troops to be fully trained, Serbia has cast the move as a dire threat to regional stability.

NATO and the European Union have also criticized the move as hasty.

But Kosovo felt free to move ahead with strong backing from the United States, its most important ally.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic lashed out at the move.

It is "absolutely clear that behind everything that (ethnic) Albanians have been doing are the United States, Great Britain and, in the case of creating the army, Germany as well," Vucic said in a televised public address.

"They do not understand that they all crossed the line," said Vucic, who called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on the issue.

Goran Rakic, a Serb political leader in the flashpoint city, called Pristina's decision "a gunshot into peace". But he urged local Serbs to exercise restraint.

President Vucic vowed that Belgrade would protect them if needed.

"If they attack you, the state of Serbia will have strength to protect you," he said.

NATO, which had warned the move was "ill-timed", said the alliance would now "re-examine" its relationship with the KSF, which it helped train.

The alliance nevertheless remains committed to securing Kosovo's safety through KFOR, the peacekeeping force is has led since the war with Serbia, said NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. — AFP