The Secretary-General of NATO, Javier Solana, has said the alliance is still ready to use force in Kosovo, if the situation requires.

In a statement, Mr Solana called on the Yugoslav authorities and ethnic-Albanian separatists to respect the two-month-old ceasefire in the province.

The European Union's envoy for Kosovo, Wolfgang Petritsch, has meanwhile warned that the situation would deteriorate rapidly if the international monitoring mission were to fail.

The political representative of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army, Adem Demaci, promised the ceasefire would be observed unless Serbian forces attacked.

He accused the Serbians of provoking recent fighting, which subsided on Sunday with at least thirteen dead.