U.N. police ordered to leave north Kosovo town

PRISTINA (Reuters) - U.N. police were ordered to pull out of northern Kosovo on Monday as hundreds of Serbs opposed to Kosovo's independence rioted in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica.

"An order has been given for UNMIK police to withdraw from the north because of ongoing violent riots," a spokesman told Reuters in the capital Pristina.

There are hundreds of U.N. police in Serb-dominated north Kosovo, backed by NATO peacekeepers.