Serb forces move into Kosovo zone

Yugoslav army and Serbian police troops have started to move into a large section of the buffer zone around Kosovo in a NATO-approved security operation.

A Yugoslav army colonel told reporters that the convoys would not be passing through villages and would avoid contact with civilians.

Serb forces moved into a small section of the zone last week.

Correspondents say the move is intended as a warning sign to ethnic Albanian guerrillas who took advantage of the security vacuum in the zone.

The deployment does not involve areas where the rebels are thought to be active. The zone was created at NATO's insistence when its peacekeepers entered the province in June 1999, as a no-go area for Yugoslav army soldiers and Serbian special police officers .

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service