The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, has said he fears Serbian forces in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina may attack the large ethnic Hungarian minority there.

Mr Orban said he was concerned about the Serbian forces he said had been stranded near the Hungarian border by NATO's bombing of bridges across the Danube at Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina.

He said the logic of the last eight years was that sooner or later every minority had come into sharp conflict with the Serbs.

Mr Orban said Hungary would accept any number of refugees from the region.