"I doubt that threats, or messages of this kind in general, can improve our status. Right now we don't have a very good reputation internationally and brandishing weapons can only contribute to greater distrust towards Serbia," Ivanovic said.
SRS vice-president Nikolic, who has been standing in for the party's leader Vojislav Seselj, currently on trial before the Hague war crimes tribunal, said recently that the armed defence of Kosovo should be the last resort in case Kosovo was declared independent.
The leader of the League of the Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Nenad Canak, was the most vocal in condemning Nikolic's statement, accusing the SRS of pushing young generations into death.
"Such statements continue the war-mongering policy of this would-be party. Nikolic's statements are yet another proof that the SRS is pursuing the policy of violence and that it should be banned," Canak said.
Asked how serious Nikolic's statement was in light of the fact that some opinion polls showed that one-third of young people in Serbia were willing to defend the province with arms, Serbian PM Vojislav Kostunica said in an interview with Danas daily on Monday that the debate on Kosovo could be conducted only in parliament.
"The negotiating team will inform the Assembly early in the autumn about what has been done so far, and the parliament is the only democratic forum where Kosovo and Metohija can be discussed," Kostunica said.