Belgrade urges NATO to act on ethnic violence

Yugoslavia called on NATO to clamp down on ethnic Albanian extremists as the known death toll from last week's bomb attack against…

Yugoslavia called on NATO to clamp down on ethnic Albanian extremists as the known death toll from last week's bomb attack against a bus carrying Serbs rose to ten, including a two-year-old child.

A surge of violence in and around UN-administered Kosovo in the past few days has killed 14 people or more, including three Serb policemen blown up by anti-tank mines yesterday in the nearby Presevo Valley region of southern Serbia.

Friday's bus bombing was one of the deadliest attacks since Kosovo came under UN control in 1999, dealing a blow to Western hopes for a new era of Balkan stability following the downfall of Mr Slobodan Milosevic.

The Yugoslav government says it believes that attack and the police killings are part of an organised terror campaign.

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Interior Minister Mr Zoran Zivkovic accused Kosovo peacekeepers of being too soft on the terrorists.

He said the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force and UN Mission in Kosovo could take a far tougher line with armed Albanians but were shying away from a direct confrontation.

NATO has defended its peacekeeping in Kosovo, saying it has made major efforts to improve boundary security and protect minorities. Its commanders say they can only do so much and only local leaders and citizens can put an end to the violence.