A declaration of Kosovo's independence by the end of next week looked increasingly likely Friday after Serbia said it had information the "illegal" move would happen on February 17.
  
The province's prime minister, Hashim Thaci, said that despite Serbia's challenge, Kosovo's independence was already a "done deal" which had received the backing of around 100 countries.
  
As the endgame to the fate of the disputed Balkan territory nears its conclusion, tensions mounted in the volatile region, particularly among Serbian nationalists angered by US and European support for the move.
  
In the latest incident, the Slovenian-run Mercator shopping mall in Belgrade was targeted Friday in a bomb attack that caused damage to property, but no casualties.
  
In Munich, Serbian President Boris Tadic warned Friday that Serbia, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders and the international community "will end up paying an extremely high price" if there is a unilateral declaration of independence.
  
"Serious negotiations on Kosovo are needed now," said Tadic at an annual security conference, adding that unilateral independence could set a precedent that would endanger European stability.
  
The Serbian minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said Belgrade had "received more and more significant information" that "Thaci will illegally declare the unilateral independence of Kosovo on February 17".
  
"The European Union cannot expect that just before the unilateral declaration of independence announced for February 17, that Serbia itself signs for the independence of Kosovo," he said.
  
Speaking earlier in Kosovo's capital Pristina, Thaci said everyone knew that independence was a done deal. He added: "None of the authorities from Belgrade can affect the positive development of a declaration and recognition of the independence of Kosovo."
  
He also said: "We have confirmations of about 100 countries around the world which are ready to recognise independence immediately after the declaration of independence."
  
Diplomatic sources in Pristina have told AFP that Kosovo looks set to becomes the world's newest country before a meeting of EU foreign ministers on February 18.
  
A US diplomat said independence was likely to come a Sunday, when the UN Security Council does not normally meet. That would fit with the Serbian government's reference to February 17.
  
Russia has said it will use its right of veto in the Security Council, where it is a permanent member, in support of Serbia, which regards Kosovo was the cradle of Serbian Orthodox history, culture and religion.
  
The European Union is preparing to send a 2,000-strong civilian mission to oversee Kosovo's birth as an independent state, in spite of opposition from several of its member states including Cyprus and Spain.
  
While EU officials consider February 17 as the probable date, talks between European capitals would "multiply next week" to find a declaration "acceptable by all" at the EU foreign ministers' meeting, diplomats in Brussels say.
  
Kosovo has been under UN administration since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces and ended a brutal crackdown on the province's ethnic Albanian majority that threaten to destabilize the wider Balkan region.