UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Military-Technical Agreement from Kumanovo clearly define the armed forces which can be deployed in Kosovo and Metohija, the director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija said on Tuesday.

Thaci, who serves as Kosovo's foreign minister, issued the statement after a meeting in New York with a U.S. State Department official.

"NATO is a serious organization and I do not believe that these allegations are truthful," Djuric told reporters in Brussels and added that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the Kumanovo Agreement clearly define the armed forces which can be deployed in Kosovo.

"NATO forces, and KFOR as their component, are listed as forces to be deployed and the Kumanovo Agreement defines the other forces that can be deployed in the area, including the Serbian army, with an explicit approval by KFOR which has not been granted for the past 16 years," he added.

According to Tanjug, Djuric "underscored that a number of armies and a lot of weapons were once present in Kosovo and that a lot of money was spent and wasted for the purpose."

Also in Brussels on Tuesday, Djuric said that he asked during the technical talks on normalization of the Belgrade-Pristina relations in Brussels for the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) to be included in the high-level political dialogue.

"We believe that the time has come for us to protect the position of the Church in Brussels as attempts at reducing its rights, importance and role have been made for years now," Djuric told reporters and added that Serbia "will never agree to this."

He voiced criticism of Kosovo's efforts aimed at joining UNESCO and said that those who destroyed churches and set them on fire and who now have the ambition to show Serbia's cultural heritage as their own cannot ask for protection wearing a disguise of submission.

Djuric said that the Serbian diplomacy is conducting a campaign against Kosovo's UNESCO membership.

He noted that the Tuesday talks also covered the constitution of the Community of Serb municipalities and added that he received assurances that Pristina would carry out the necessary legal steps in order to have the Statute of the Community of Serb Municipalities adopted on November 25 as previously agreed.