BELGRADE (Reuters) - The&nbsp;Serbian government will ask the NATO peacekeeper commander to allow the country to send up to 1,000 police and army personnel to&nbsp;Kosovo, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday.
It is the first time Belgrade has&nbsp;requested to&nbsp;deploy&nbsp;troops&nbsp;in&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;since a United Nations Security Council resolution ended the 1998 to 1999 war, during which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia comprising&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;and Montenegro to protect Albanian-majority&nbsp;Kosovo.
"The government will ask for the return of hundreds and no more than 1,000 army and police&nbsp;troops," Vucic said, adding that they will email the&nbsp;request&nbsp;this evening and physically hand it to KFOR, the NATO mission in&nbsp;Kosovo, at a border crossing on Friday.
"I do not expect to get a positive answer," Vucic said.
The&nbsp;request&nbsp;comes during a spate of clashes between&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;authorities and Serbs in the northern region, where they constitute a majority.
The U. N. resolution states that&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;may be allowed, if approved by KFOR, to station&nbsp;its&nbsp;personnel at border crossings, Orthodox Christian religious sites and areas with Serb majorities.
In 2008,&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;declared independence from&nbsp;Serbia&nbsp;with Western backing.&nbsp;Its&nbsp;independence is recognised by 110 countries but not by&nbsp;Serbia, Russia and five European Union member states.
&ldquo;We are all witnessing&nbsp;Serbia's constant threat to&nbsp;Kosovo,"&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;President Vjosa Osmani told the parliament on Thursday.
"Serbia&nbsp;and&nbsp;its&nbsp;leader Vucic know very well that the presence of the&nbsp;Serbian army in the territory of&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;ended once and for all on June 12, 1999."
Serbia&nbsp;aims to join the EU, but to complete&nbsp;its&nbsp;membership process it must resolve issues with&nbsp;Kosovo.&nbsp;Kosovo&nbsp;filed an application for EU membership on Thursday.
Both parties have agreed to EU-sponsored dialogue in 2013 but little progress has been made.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Josie Kao)

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Serbia to request permission to deploy its troops in Kosovo