The US and European Union ambassadors toured southern Serbia with Defense Minister Milos Vucevic to see the situation on the ground, the Beta news agency said on Thursday quoting the US Embassy in Belgrade.

“Ambassadors (Christopher) Hill and (Emanuel) Giaufret met in southern Serbia with Defense Minister Milos Vucevic and Chief of Staff General Milan Mojsilovic at their invitation to inform themselves in detail about the situation along the Serbia-Kosovo border,” the embassy said.

The visit comes after Washington called Belgrade to reduce its troop numbers along the border with Kosovo following the armed incident at the Banjska monastery.

A Defense Ministry press release said that the ambassadors visited some military units in the Novi Pazar area as guests of the minister and general and “had an opportunity to see that those units were engaged only on regular tasks”. It added that the Serbian military did not fly any foreign nationals in its helicopters, denying claims that Hill flew to Novi Pazar with Vucevic.