A KFOR spokesman has said a United States soldier serving with the international peacekeepers in Kosovo has been arrested in connection with the death of a young woman believed to be an ethnic Albanian.

The woman's body was found by an American army patrol on Thursday near the southeastern town of Vitina.

A United Nations official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the woman had been raped before being killed.

Correspondents say this is the first such incident since the NATO-led peacekeepers entered the province last June.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service