The new patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church has been enthroned at a ceremony in Belgrade, pledging to back Serbia's claims to Kosovo.
Patriarch Irinej, 80, says the Church's first duty is to help recover the breakaway province, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
The BBC reports he is considered a moderate who is open to modernisation.
He has said that he would not be opposed to Pope Benedict XVI visiting Serbia, suggesting a possible rapprochement with the Catholic Church.
The service in Belgrade was the first part of a two-stage induction process. A second ceremony is to be held at Pec in western Kosovo.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
Most of Serbia's seven million people are Orthodox Christians.
