BRUSSELS- Director of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric stated in Brussels on Monday that Belgrade will continue protecting the rights of Serbs in KiM despite the moves of the Pristina government.

"The Serbian government will persevere in the protection of interests of our people in KiM and we made this very clear in the talks with our colleagues in Brussels," Djuric told reporters after the talks with associates of High EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

After the meeting with Ashton's representatives headed by Fernando Gentile as the director for the Western Balkans at the European External Action Service, Djuric said that Belgrade cannot change the negative moves made in the past but it has the obligation and responsibility to affect the developments in the future.

"I believe that we can draw lessons from the experiences of major European nations who tackled similar problems but we also need cohesion and unity of the entire society so that we would be able to protect national interests of our people through joint efforts," he said.

Djuric underscored that Belgrade will continue supporting the search for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo problem despite the moves of 'parts of the Pristina interim self-government institutions.'

"We strongly condemn the invasion of the property of displaced Serbs in the municipality of Strpce," he said and added that the moves of the Kosovo Privatisation Agency in the area have deeply disturbed the population.

Djuric said that Belgrade expects representatives of the international community to prevent Pristina from bringing the dialogue on normalization of relations into an unfavorable atmosphere.

"Today, we are in a situation when we are discussing an increase of general political rights of Serbs in KiM and the moves of the Pristina government following the staging of parliamentary elections blight the dialogue atmosphere," Djuric said at the conclusion of the one-day visit to Brussels.