The defense minister told reporters in the southern Serbian town that the country will not make any wrong decisions that would lead to conflict.

Several thousand citizens, officials and foreign diplomats attended the ceremonies.

Members of the Serbian Army (VS) Ground Corps, Air Force and its Special Brigade demonstrated their capabilities in several exercises, including hostage rescue scenarios, terror attack scene management and helicopter and war plane maneuvering capabilities.

Šutanovac, DS, said afterwards that Serbia's military has shown it is trained and ready to deal with any challenge, risk or threat, "above all, on the territory it controls".

But, Šutanovac repeated, the country's political leadership will not make any wrong decisions that would lead to "such means to be deployed".

"I am convinced that, if we are clever in the next 10 to 15 days and if there is no violence, we will go through a very difficult and challenging part of our history," the minister, one of President Boris Tadić's closest party allies, said.

As for the security situation in Serbia's volatile south, along the administrative line with Kosovo, Šutanovac said it was stable, but with "indicators of possible problems, primarily in Kosovo itself".

"We have groups of men located, who are criminally organized, but we exchange information with KFOR and hope there will be no outbreaks of violence," Šutanovac said, and added that the army is ready to cooperate with MUP's elite Gendarmerie, also deployed in the area.