Mr Ashdown has been a regular visitor to the Balkans region

During his visit, the Liberal Democrat leader will meet representatives of the British mission in the capital Pristina, the international K-For force, and its head, General Mike Jackson.

Liberal Democrat aides stressed the former soldier was not travelling as an envoy of the government, but as a party leader and Balkans expert.

A party spokesman said: "The purpose of the trip is a fact-finding mission, particularly to find out about reconstruction aid for Kosovo and to draw to the attention of Western public opinion the need for a continued commitment to the region."

Humanitarian mission

Mr Ashdown will also meet UN special representative Bernard Kouchner, Hasim Thaci of the Kosovo Liberation Army and Ibrahim Rugova, the Kosovo Albanian leader.

Further meetings are scheduled with Bishop Artemi of the Kosovar Serb people and Blerim Shala, a Kosovar Albanian signatory to the unsuccessful Rambouillet peace deal.

Before returning to London on Wednesday, Mr Ashdown also plans to tour the south west of Kosovo to inspect the military and humanitarian situation and the progress of the international war crimes investigation.

It will be Lib Dems' leader's fifth visit to Kosovo since June 1998, and his 14th to the Balkans since the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.

In April, he spent five days visiting refugee camps in Albania and went to Macedonia in May as an envoy for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He said then: "I've done a lot of tramping round the Balkans in the last five years, but I've heard things and seen things here which I've found terrible and terrifying - every single family I've spoken to with a horror story of its own to tell."