Fighting returns to southern Serbia

Yugoslav troops recently deployed in the buffer zone

Fighting has resumed in southern Serbia between security forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

The Serbian authorities say that despite a ceasefire agreement signed two weeks ago, guerrillas attacked Serbian police checkpoints at four places inside the five-kilometre (3 mile) buffer zone between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.

Albanian nationalism has crossed borders

The Serbians say the guerrillas used mortars, grenades and machine guns despite the presence of European Union observers in the area.

The ethnic Albanian rebels say the ceasefire was broken by the Serbians, who are gradually being allowed back into the buffer zone by the Nato-led peacekeeping force, K-For.

Peace talks are supposed to get under way with Nato mediation on Thursday, but a communique issued by the rebels said they would not attend.

Meanwhile, EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana called on ethnic Albanians in neighbouring Macedonia to start talking to the Skopje government.

"We think that the fighting is over and that it is time for dialogue," he said.

Grim reminder

Mr Solana visited the town of Tetovo, where the government has been conducting an apparently successful military operation against the guerrillas.

Mayor Murtezan showed Mr Solana the scene of recent fighting

BBC correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that while fighting in Macedonia has died down the new clashes in Serbia are a grim reminder that the ethnic Albanian insurgency has no borders.

Serbian Government sources said that rebels concentrated mortar, grenade and machine-gun fire on a strategic road from Presevo in Serbia proper to the Kosovo town of Gnjilane.

Other sources reported that two ethnic Albanian fighters were killed in the attacks and that a EU monitoring mission had been fired on by rebels.

A rebel spokesman admitted that one of its commanders was killed in clashes with Yugoslav forces near the Cerevajka pass, scene of the worst fighting on Monday and Tuesday.

Nato patrols

Nato is strengthening patrols on the Kosovo side of the border with Macedonia to prevent future infiltrations by guerrillas.

BBC correspondents day the K-For troops are making a difference, confiscating weaponry and detaining suspected fighters.

On Monday, a routine patrol seized a truckload of ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades.

But in this wooded and mountainous terrain, it is no easy job, they say, even with sophisticated technology.

The EU and Nato are now urging the Macedonian Government to turn its attention to political dialogue and addressing the grievances of the Albanian minority.

EU support

During his visit, Mr Solana held talks with Arben Xhaferi, leader of Macedonia's moderate Albanian party, the Democratic Party of Albanians.

He later walked through the Tetovo town square arm-in-arm with Mayor Ismail Murtezan.

Speaking to the BBC after his visit, Mr Solana said it had given him the chance to express the EU's support for all communities in Macedonia.

The overwhelming majority of the Albanian population did not want violence, but a united community where everyone could feel comfortable, he said.

"We would be making a terrible mistake to equate the ethnic Albanian people with a few rebels."