Yugoslavia's Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic has been wounded in a shootout.

Two other men were also reportedly wounded in the shooting.

Mr Bulatovic was in the restaurant of the soccer club Rad in a Belgrade residential area when he was shot and wounded.

The area around the restaurant, in Banjica, was sealed off by police.

Automatic weapon

Police sources said that Mr Bulatovic and at least one other person was shot by a man using an automatic weapon.

The Independent television station, Studio B, reported a third person was wounded in the shootout.

Mr Bulatovic is the member of a pro-Serb group in Montenegro, loyal to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

His Socialist People's Party is at odds with the Montenegrin pro-Western government of President Milo Djukanovic.

Montenegrin police sources have confirmed the shooting but there was no immediate official confirmation from police in Belgrade