Serb ultra-nationalist lawmakers reportedly held up insulting signs in parliament against the visit Wednesday of US Vice President Joe Biden, considered a strong backer of Kosovo's independence.

"Biden, you Nazi scum, go home," said the posters brandished by opposition Radical Party members during a parliament sitting that coincided with the US vice president's arrival in Belgrade, Beta news agency said.

The Radicals, who occupy around one fifth of places in the 250-seat assembly, displayed the signs to television cameras before sticking them up on a notice board and hallway.

They all appeared in parliament dressed in T-shirts bearing the image of the party's president, Vojislav Seselj, who is currently on trial for war crimes before a UN tribunal in The Hague.

Nationalist Serbs are deeply sceptical of Biden's visit, which the US vice president said was part of the Obama administration's bid to develop "healthy" relations with the former pariah state.

Serbian authorities have imposed stringent security measures for Biden's visit, part of a landmark tour of the Balkan region also taking in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Kosovo is an ethnic Albanian-majority territory whose ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament seceded from Serbia in February 2008 and was promptly recognised by the United States.

Although Belgrade's pro-Western government is keen to improve ties with Washington, it insists it will never recognise the independence of Kosovo, which many Serbs see as their historic heartland.

AFP

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