Two people have been killed in Kosovo and five injured in a rocket attack on a UNHCR bus carrying Serb civilians.

The attack happened about 15km (10 miles) south-west of the northern town of Mitrovica. Heavy fog in the area is complicating rescue efforts by the international peacekeeping force K-For.

The bus, which was carrying around 50 passengers, was hit by an anti-tank rocket.

It was a regular weekly service operated by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) carrying Serbs between Mitrovica and the town of Djurakovac to the south-west.

The US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright has deplored what she described as a cowardly attack on defenceless Serb passengers.

"This reprehensible act only serves to prolong the cycle of violence that has plagued Kosovo. We call on the leadership of the Kosovo Albanian community to join us in condemning this crime," Mrs Albright said.

The representative for the UNHCR in the Balkans, Dennis McNamara, also angrily criticised the attack.

"This was a vicious attack on a clearly marked UNHCR bus carrying civilians," he said.

French peacekeepers were escorting the bus at the time of the attack. K-For medical teams have gone to the scene.

There has been no word yet from K-For as to who may have fired the rocket at the bus.

The region around Mitrovica is tense, with Serbs and Albanians keeping to their own areas.

A BBC correspondent in Belgrade, Jacky Rowland, says the attack will inevitably deter many Serbs from making trips away from their homes.

It will also further dent the confidence of Serbs in the ability of K-For to protect them.

Kosovo's parliament disolved

In a separate development, one of the main Albanian leaders in Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, confirmed on Wednesday that the unofficial Kosovo parliament has been dissolved in line with an agreement to set up an interim administration with international officials and local Serbs.

A meeting to inaugurate the power-sharing executive broke up yesterday amid disagreement on whether all parallel Albanian institutions had been dissolved.

Mr Rugova also said he would continue to disburse millions of dollars collected from the Kosovo Albanians to the new body.

West abandons Kosovo

Meanwhile, the senior UN official in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, has again blamed the international community for abandoning Kosovo.

Mr Kouchner said he no longer had the money to pay the salaries of essential workers like doctors, teachers or judges. He said people seemed to believe that Kosovo's problems had been solved once the immediate crisis was over.

"No one will benefit from this abandonment, except perhaps [Yugoslav President] Slobodan Milosevic," Mr Kouchner said.