Serb forces unleashed a series of attacks on villages in central and western Kosovo yesterday, according to Albanian and Serb sources.
If confirmed, the reports would indicate that Belgrade's week-long attempt to deal a knock-out blow to ethnic Albanian rebels was continuing despite recent pledges by President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia that he had called off his troops.
According to the main Albanian political party in the province, in the south of Serbia, Serb forces attacked eight villages in the region of Junik in the west of Kosovo.
The Kosovo Democratic League (LDK) in the regional capital, citing sources in the area, said Serb forces had centred their attack on villages between Junik and Reke e Kece.
An Albanian official speaking by telephone from a village in the centre of Kosovo said that Serbs had also attacked two nearby villages.
A local human rights worker, Mr Murt Musliu, in Srbica, 30 km (20 miles) west of Pristina, said Serb units began "bombarding" the nearby villages of Lausa and Poljance at daybreak.
His report was confirmed by a well-informed Serbian source, who said an operation was underway against the two villages.
According to Mr Musliu, the fighting later spread to two villages, Glogovac, 15 km south-east of Srbica, and Klina, 25 km southwest of Srbica. He said at least eight people had been killed.
Serb forces have spent the last week battling the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels, who are fighting for independence for the Albanian-majority province. Last Thursday, Mr Milosevic told a delegation of European Union officials who visited Belgrade that the Serb offensive in Kosovo "has come to a halt".
The KLA has suffered a series of setbacks in the face of the widespread Serbian operation, losing control of several strongholds and its grip on key supply roads in the province.
Up to 10,000 ethnic Albanian refugees have fled to Germany since the beginning of the year, the daily Berliner Morgenpost quoted the German Interior Ministry as saying yesterday. However, a ministry source said the ethnic Albanians would not be given the status of refugees, nor were there plans to halt their expulsion.
The German Foreign Minister, Mr Klaus Kinkel, said on Saturday that Albanian refugees should be accommodated in northern Albania or Macedonia, and not in Germany.
The German foreign ministry has warned an Albanian political group in the country that it risks being banned following an investigation by the authorities into its activities. According to today's edition of Focus, a weekly magazine, Mr Kinkel has asked finance and interior ministry officials to look into sanctions against the group.
Focus said it was believed that money collected by the group was being used to buy weapons for the KLA.