The United Kingdom is reinforcing North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeepers in Kosovo with 200 troops who will join 400 UK soldiers already in the Balkan country as part of the NATO-led Kosovo Force.

UK's ministry of defense said Sunday the deployment was in response to the request of NATO as tension rises between Kosovo and Serbia which reportedly massed troops and military equipment in the border of its former province.

The deployment ups the British Army contingent to KFOR to 600. KFOR's mandate is to maintain a safe and secure environment and freedom of movement for all people of Kosovo.

NATO also called for calm on Sunday and demanded that Belgrade and Pristina resume dialogue as soon as possible as "the only way to achieve lasting peace," Dylan White, NATO spokesperson, said.

There is a resurgence of tension in the region following the violent attack by dozens of suspected Serbian gunmen on Kosovo Police that killed one officer on 24 September.

Kosovo police engaged the gunmen who took refuge in an Orthodox church, killing three and arresting others.

On Friday, the United States said it detected troop buildup along the Serbia's southern border with Kosovo and asked Belgrade to withdraw the forces.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic announced Saturday he had ordered troops to be pulled back but the Kosovan government said the withdrawal was partial, The Guardian reported.

Serbia refuses to recognize the independence of its former southern province, which has an Albanian majority, a decade after a deadly war between Kosovo independence guerrillas and Serbian forces, which ended after a NATO bombing campaign.

WITH AFP