The American special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, has warned that Washington would consider using military force if the government in Belgrade provoked armed conflict in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

Mr Gelbard said the United States and its allies would not tolerate a renewal of last week's violence, in which twenty-five ethnic Albanians were killed.

The Yugoslav federal president, Slobodan Milosevic is likely to come under further pressure from the British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, who's in Belgrade as a representative of the European Union; he says he'll urge Mr Milosevic to restore autonomy to the province.

NATO ambassadors meeting in Brussels have called on Mr Milosevic to open a dialogue with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
 

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