Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia has divided world powers, with France, Britain and Germany leading some EU states in recognizing Kosovo, while other nations around the world have declared the move illegal.

A meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday failed to find common ground, with Spain and Slovakia refusing to recognize Europe's newest nation.

Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, said France would establish ties with Kosovo.

"We intend to recognize Kosovo," he told reporters following the EU meeting, held a day after Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.

David Miliband, the UK's foreign minister, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, his German counterpart, quickly followed with similar announcements.

"A majority of the EU states will recognize Kosovo," Steinmeier predicted.

The US also recognized Kosovo's newly independent status on Monday.

"The United States has today formally recognized Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state," Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said in a statement.

"We congratulate the people of Kosovo on this historic occasion," she said, adding that diplomatic ties would ensue.

Afghanistan, though, was the first nation to officially recognize Kosovo.

In a foreign ministry statement the country spoke of the need to respect the "will of the people".

Objections to independence

But many countries, including China, Romania and Russia have opposed Kosovo's independence.

Slovakia and Spain made it clear that Kosovo's independence bid, and efforts to recognize it, were illegal under international law.

"Slovakia does not see a way to recognize Kosovo," Jan Kubis, the country's foreign minister, said.

Slovakia, with its sizable Hungarian minority, fears Kosovo's move will feed its own ethnic tensions.

Spain, which struggles with its own separatist movements, also refused to recognize Kosovo's new status.

"The Spanish government is not going to recognize the unilateral act proclaimed yesterday by the Kosovar assembly," Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain's foreign minister, said earlier.

"We're not going to recognize it because we don't consider that it respects international law."

Serbia and Russia, neither members of the EU, have also objected to Kosovo's independence, with Russia warning that the secession would have repercussions in breakaway regions across the world.

Serbia vowed to block the territory, which it still claims as its own, from joining any world body and launched criminal action against Kosovo's leaders for making Sunday's declaration of independence.

Tensions in Serbia

On Monday, Serbian police filed criminal charges against Fatmir Sejdiu, Kosovo's president, Hashim Thaci, the prime minister, and Jakup Krasniqi, the parliamentary speaker, with "organizing the proclamation of a phony state on Serbian territory".

In a statement the Serbian interior ministry accused the three of committing a "a serious criminal act against the constitutional order and security of Serbia".

Protests were held in Belgrade, the Serb capital, and in Kosovo, where Serb groups rejected Kosovo's secession.

"The protests we've seen [today] have been relatively peaceful ... but there is a huge amount of anger here," Nazanine Moshiri, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Belgrade, reported.

"Kosovo is of huge importance to Serbia both historically and religiously."

Kosovo protest

Tensions also increased in Serb-controlled areas of Kosovo on Monday as thousands of Kosovo Serbs attended a protest in one of Kosovo's northern towns, demonstrating against Kosovo's independence.

A UN car was torched overnight in the northern Serb town of Zubin Potok, witnesses said.

In an earlier incident, hand grenades were lobbed at EU and UN buildings in the Serb stronghold of Mitrovica.

Kosovo declared independence on Sunday, with prime minister Thaci announcing that "Kosovo is proud, independent and free", after all 109 deputies present a special session of parliament voted to declare independence from Serbia.

Thousands of ethnic Albanians took to the streets of Pristina to celebrate, but at the same time demonstrators in Belgrade stoned the US embassy in protest against US support for Kosovo's independence.

PHOTO CAPTION

Kosovo Serbs rally on their side of the main bridge in Mitrovica