The NATO Secretary General, Javier Solana, has said that Serbian threats to re-launch an offensive against ethnic Albanian seperatists in Kosovo won't be tolerated.

He was speaking after the Serbian deputy prime minister, Tomoslav Nikolic, warned that the government in Belgrade might repeat its offensive earlier this year against the main Kosovo nationalist group, the Kosovo Liberation Army.

He accused what he described as Albanian terrorists of continuing to murder and kidnap people.

The BBC correspondent in the Balkans says hopes of a political settlement in Kosovo have been set back, with the rejection by the chief ethnic Albanian negotiator of the latest American peace plan.