KFOR gets tough with Albanians

The head of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo says his troops will step up patrols along the Macedonian border following reports of incursions by ethnic Albanian fighters.

The KFOR commander, Carlo Cabigiosu, said his forces would also step up cooperation with the Macedonian army.

The statement followed a report by the Macedonian defence ministry that it had spotted a group of armed men in black or camouflage uniforms parading along the Kosovan side of the border.

The ministry said this was a clear provocation.

The BBC Balkans reporter says the men are thought to be linked to ethnic Albanian separatists fighting in southern Serbia. Last month a new ethnic Albanian group in Macedonia, the National Liberation Army, fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a police station.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service