The Nato-led international force in Kosovo, K-For, is to hold military exercises in the province.

The force says it wants to demonstrate to the Serb and ethnic Albanian communities that its peacekeeping troops are ready to respond to any contingency.

The exercises, which are due to take place next Monday, are intended as a show of force, to warn both communities not to disrupt the peace process.

They were planned before the recent increase in violence in the divided town of Kosovoska Mitrovica.

Exodus

The United Nations says that nearly 500 ethnic Albanians have left their homes in the predominantly-Serb northern areas of Mitrovica in recent days.

Violence erupted in Mitrovica last week, leaving at least eight people dead.

French K-For troops closed two bridges that separate the ethnic Albanian and Serb sections of the town.

On Monday some 2,000 Kosovo Serbs massed in the north of Mitrovica in response to calls from local leaders for the return of Yugoslav security forces to ensure protection for the Serb community.

Milan Ivanovic, a local doctor and community leader, told the crowd: "Serbs here feel the same as the Jews in Auschwitz."

A curfew imposed in the town initially for three days has been extended for another 15 days.