It is a disastrous time for most Serbs. As far as they are concerned a part of their heartland is being torn from their country, and they are very unhappy about it.

Several thousand people demonstrated in front of the Slovenian embassy in Belgrade on Saturday. Slovenia, once part of Yugoslavia, is the current EU president, and Brussels is being blamed along with Washington for Kosovo's breaking away from Serb control.

"Kosovo remains ours" read the banner behind which the crowd marched, and the issue of Kosovo, whether people support the pro-EU government or are members of the nationalist opposition, seems to unite Serbs like no other, and gets support from society, the church, and state.

President Boris Tadic, newly re-elected and a pro-westerner, will not challenge the national mood, and he opposed Kosovan independence. But it is about to happen, and no protests from either Belgrade or Moscow, Serbia's biggest supporter, will change that.

However that has not prevented Serbia from staging big military manouvers near Kosovo this weekend in Nis to mark army day and the 19th Century first Serbian uprising, seen as the rebirth of the Serb army and state.