PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo's leaders sent letters 192 countries today seeking formal recognition of independence, and suspense gripped the province as its citizens awaited key backing from the U.S. and key European powers.

A day after Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership made its historic declaration of independence from Serbia, tensions soared in the north, home to most of the territory's minority Serbs.

An explosion damaged a U.N. vehicle outside the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, and Serbs planned demonstrations there and in an enclave outside Pristina.

President Fatmir Sejdiu played down the fears of renewed unrest, saying the government needed to set about the business of building a democratic country.

Sunday's declaration was carefully orchestrated with the U.S. and key European powers, and Kosovo was counting on international recognition expected to come during today's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium.

On Sunday, Kosovo's lawmakers achieved what a bloody separatist war with Serbian forces could not: They pronounced the province the Republic of Kosovo, and pledged to make it a "democratic, multiethnic state."

Kosovo had formally remained a part of Serbia even though it has been administered by the U.N. and NATO since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists, which killed 10,000 people.

Ninety percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are ethnic Albanian — most of them secular Muslims — and they see no reason to stay joined to Christian Orthodox Serbia.

The 192 letters included one to Serbia. The Belgrade government said it would never accept Kosovo's statehood.