The BBC's Orla Guerin: "The prime minister was flown into the province he had refused to abandon"

He continues his tour of the region on Saturday when he is expected to be greeted by thousands of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

Mr Blair is due to address the crowd and go on a walkabout through Pristina's streets.

He is also holding breakfast talks with Macedonina Prime Minister Lubjco Georgievski.

His visit follows the Balkans summit in Sarajevo which ended with participants adopting a declaration that sets out guidelines to promote peace and stability in the region.

The 40-country summit also called on the Yugoslav authorities to "embrace democratic change" or remain an outcast.

The prime minister was able to see the extent of the devastation when his helicopter flew low over burned out houses and buildings before landing in the Kosovan capital, Pristina.

After meeting K-For's British commander, General Sir Mike Jackson, Mr Blair told some of the 10,000 British troops in Kosovo: "It's a fantastic thing to be here and to see what our troops here have achieved.

"I feel a great sense of pride. I feel that the cause was just. We now know that thousands of people were killed and treated with great brutality."

Mr Blair's visit came a day before British soldiers from the Parachute Regiment end their tour of duty in Kosovo to be replaced by troops from the Royal Irish Regiment.

The Paras are ending their tour of duty in Kosovo

On Friday, Mr Blair told crowds that the rest of the world should now "try to build a Kosovo which, in the end, will be a symbol of how the Balkans should be".

But he conceded: "There's an immense amount still to do. There will be difficulties along the way."

Asked whether he was concerned about violence towards the Serb minority in Kosovo, the Prime Minister replied: "We fought this conflict because we believe in justice, because we believed it was wrong to have ethnic cleansing and racial genocide here in Europe towards the end of the 20th Century, and we didn't fight it to have another ethnic minority repressed."

The prime minister was expected to reinforce Britain's pledge to send 100 police to Kosovo later this year to help restore an impartial civilian security presence.

About 60 of them are expected to come from the RUC, the only UK force who routinely patrol armed and have experience of regularly policing flash point civil disturbances.