Protesters took to the streets in key Serb centres across the Balkans today to vent their anger at Kosovo's declaration of independence, as Moscow called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to oppose the move.

The day after scenes of wild celebrations by Kosovan Albanians on the streets of Pristina, the Kosovo capital, there was a very different mood in Banja Luka, the capital of the Bosnian Serb Republic, where a protest march turned violent as demonstrators threw stones and eggs at police stopping them breaking into the US Consulate.

In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, some 7,000 people gathered in Republic Square, the heart of the city, carrying Serbian flags and singing anti-Albanian slogans.

In Kosovo itself, 5,000 Serbs chanted “This is Serbia” and waved banners reading “Russia Help!” and posters of US flags with Nazi swastikas scribbled over them, as they demanded that the parts of Kosovo where Serbs live remain within Serbia.

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The Serbian parliament is planning an emergency session to adopt a government decision to annul Kosovo's independence declaration on the ground that it “violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia”.

The Serb government also declared “null and void” the EU decision, which received the green light on Friday night, to send a 2,000-strong force of policemen and lawyers to help Kosovo to establish the foundations for the rule of law in the new country.

Russia has supported Serbia's claim to Kosovo, while the United States has supported Kosovo's drive for independence.

“America is no longer the single world power,” Marko Jaksic, the hardline leader of Kosovo Serbs, told the noisy gathering. “The Russians are coming. As long as there is Russia and Serbia, there will never be an independent Kosovo.”

The crowds, singing nationalist songs, marched to a bridge spanning a river that divides Kosovska Mitrovica, with Serbs in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south of the drab mining town. They were confronted by Nato peacekeepers, but there were no violent incidents. “If the Albanians try to cross the bridge, we demand from the Serbian Army to use all available means to stop them,” Jaksic said.

Another 800 Serbs staged a noisy demonstration in the Serb-dominated enclave of Gracanica outside Pristina, waving Serbian flags and singing patriotic songs.

The European Union called for calm in the Balkans as foreign ministers began their meeting in Brussels to consider how to react to Kosovo's declaration of independence. Six member states oppose the move, although the EU has sent an 1,800-strong mission to aid the Kosovo Albanians in setting up their new republic.

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