Serbia aims to reduce the number of countries which recognise Kosovo’s independence to bellow a half of the UN member states and that will happen by the end of the year, Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said on Wednesday, the Beta news agency reported.

His words came despite the newly appointed US special envoy for the Western Balkans Matthew Palmer’s warning to Belgrade to stop campaigning against Kosovo’s eventual membership to the international organisations.

Palmer also demanded that Pristina lift the 100 percent import taxes on goods from Serbia and thus enable the resumption of the talks on the normalisation of relations between the two capitals.

However, Dacic announced more withdrawals, adding Serbia would not give up lobbying.

He said that 15 states that had already withdrawn the recognition made up eight percent of a total number of votes in the UN.

“The number will drop below 50 percent of the UN member states very soon, by the end of this year, and rest assured that Kosovo won’t become a member of Interpol, so they should not embarrass themselves,” he said.

Dacic addressed the Parliament session where the deputies voted to abolish diplomatic visas for Paraguay, Miramar Union, and the Dominican Republic and the citizens of Surinam.

Last November, Kosovo failed to win enough votes to become an Interpol member, and many attributed that to Serbia's lobbying. Pristina stroke back by introducing the import tariffs which already inflicted some damage to Serbia's export and economy in general.