The incident was one of three in which troops with the Nato-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo clashed with ethnic Albanians in the province.

The Russians were being besieged by about 500 people armed with sticks and rocks protesting about their presence in the village of Dobrcane in the southeast of the province.

US soldiers fired warning shots to disperse the crowd.

Later, the American K-For commander, Brigadier-General John Craddock, accused the Albanians of spreading disinformation when they accused the Russians of being pro-Serb.

He said the Russians were doing an outstanding job.

Raid

American troops also had a confrontation with Albanians in Gnjilane - 50km south of the capital, Pristina - after they arrested several men for illegally possessing fire-arms.

The 10 men were taken into custody on Tuesday after K-For troops raided a house in the town and found guns, knives and other weapons.

The protesters blocked the road calling for their release.

However the US believes the main cause of the tension in Gnjilane was the killing of an ethnic Albanian man on Monday night in the nearby town of Koretin.

He was shot in the joint Russian-American peacekeeping zone.

'Execution'

Gen Craddock said the fact that it was a "very violent, execution-style murder" inflamed the situation.

Locals had claimed that the victim was a Kosovo Liberation Army member and that he was killed by a Russian K-For soldier with a high-powered rifle.

But Gen Craddock said there was "no evidence or indication there were Russians involved".

Violence was also reported on Wednesday in the divided town of Mitrovica, where French K-For troops and ethnic Albanians have been involved in a stand-off.

Ethnic Albanians have repeatedly tried to cross the town's bridge into the Serb-dominated sector.

For its part, the United Nations refugee agency has warned that continuing violence against the Serbs in Kosovo is driving many out of the province.