Yugoslavia wants talks on buffer zone

The Yugoslav foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic, has called for significant changes to the buffer zone running along the border between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.

During his first meeting with senior Nato officials in Brussels, Mr Svilanovic said Nato and the Yugoslav army were no longer enemies.

The five kilometer wide demilitarised buffer zone was set up in 1999 to minimise the chances of clashes between Belgrade forces and Nato-led Kfor peacekeepers, but has since become a safe haven for ethnic Albanian rebels.

The Nato secretary general, George Robertson, said it was important to minimise the level of provocation of what he called extremists in the area.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service