Yugoslavia urges guerrillas to talks

Yugoslav officials have called on ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia to hold talks about ending violence in the demilitarised buffer zone on the border with Kosovo.

The Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, Nebojsa Covic, said the army and police would stay in their present positions until a solution is found, and not engage in any offensive operations.

Sporadic fighting in the buffer zone, an area with a large ethnic Albanian population, has killed around thirty people since it began a year ago. The Yugoslav authorities earlier this month presented a plan for ending violence and resolving the crisis peacefully, which has received support from NATO and Western officials.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service