The Unites States ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, has described policing as the most urgent task of the UN mission in Kosovo.

On the final day of his visit to the province, Mr Holbrooke has been touring areas of the capital, Pristina, where Serbs and Gypsies have been intimidated and driven from their homes by Kosovo Albanians.

He was accompanied by the UN police commissioner , Sven Frederiksen, who said that he hoped the international police force would be in full control of the city by the end of the week.

The force would reach the rest of the province by the middle of October. NATO-led peacekeepers have been carrying out much of the initial policing work in Kosovo. A BBC correspondent in Pristina says that while the situation has improved in the capital, there've been ethnically motivated attacks elsewhere in the province. More Serbs and Gypsy homes have been burnt in recent days in the southern city of Prizren.