United Nations police in Kosovo say three Serbs were shot dead yesterday as they were returning to the province.

United States forces, who patrol eastern Kosovo, said military police found the bodies of the three Serb men lying face down in the Pasjane area just two-hundred metres from the provincial boundary with Serbia proper.

More than one-hundred ethnic Serbs demonstrated in a nearby town Partes after hearing of the killings.

Tens of thousands of Serbs, fearing for their safety, fled the province after NATO drove Serbian forces out of Kosovo last June.

A UN official in Kosovo has warned against jumping to conclusions and assuming that ethnic Albanians carried out the killings.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service