The American military authorities say a United States soldier serving with the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo has been charged with the sexual assault and murder of a twelve-year-old ethnic-Albanian girl.

The man, Sergeant Frank Ronghi, was arrested after the girl's body was found outside the south-eastern town of Vitina on Thursday.

He is due to be transferred to a US army prison in Germany to face court martial after a preliminary investigation in Kosovo.

The senior American commander in the K-For peacekeeping force, General Ricardo Sanchez, has met community leaders in Vitina, where he called the killing a tragic criminal act.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service