As NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia continue, its neighbours are reinforcing their borders and gearing up to deal with a potential influx of refugees.

Macedonia's Interior Ministry said on Thursday that more than a thousand refugees from Kosovo had crossed into the republic the previous day, bringing the total number to more than 12,500, Macedonian radio reported.

The radio said Interior Ministry units "are fully prepared and mobile at the border with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" and that "since this morning, some units of the police reserve forces were also mobilized" .

But it described the situation at the border as "under control" with "no increased pressure or inflow of refugees from Kosovo" .

German media on Wednesday had reported that Macedonia had officially asked the EU for humanitarian aid to take care of the Kosovo refugees and for economic aid.

"Our small country is completely overstrained," Macedonian Ambassador Srgjan Kerim told a Berlin daily, adding that "we must expect a wave of more than 100,000 refugees".

TheEU on Thursday responded to the sudden increase in refugees from Kosovo by allocating two million euros in emergency aid in a decision that "puts particular emphasis on the situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" , the EU's Europa web site said.

Macedonia's eastern neighbour Bulgaria has not registered an influx of refugees but is taking contingency plans, the BTA news agency reported.

"Even though there are no such humanitarian risks for Bulgaria at present the government remains ready and is taking the necessary measures.

A parliamentary committee was set up under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Evgeni Bakurdzhiev and is considering all possibilities of this country taking in refugees" , the agency quoted Prime Minister Ivan Kostov as saying on Thursday.

Hungary has also been beefing up its border units and setting up provisional shelters to cope with a potential wave of refugees from the Yugoslav crisis.

"The Border Guard has reinforced the Hungarian-Yugoslav border by redeploying units from other parts of the country," Hungarian radio reported early on Thursday.

"One thousand border guards have been transferred to the area.

Spokesman Attila Krisan said that their most important task was to ensure the smooth flow of border traffic on the 174km stretch," it added.

A Hungarian TV correspondent said late Thursday morning that the number of people fleeing Yugoslavia had "definitely increased compared to yesterday" but described the flow as a " steady trickle" rather than a mass exodus.

"I also heard from the border that anybody who leaves their homes and crosses into Hungary to stay with friends is taking a risk because looting started when air strikes began, meaning that by the time people arrive back at their homes, they may not find their valuables there any more.

They also told me that while occupants of state-owned flats are out of the country, their flats can be expropriated by the Serbian state due to the war footing," the correspondent added.

In a lunchtime broadcast, Hungarian radio said that "at the request of the Refugee and Migration Office, the Red Cross is also getting prepared for a wave of refugees due to the Yugoslav crisis" .

"Provision shelters will be set up in four places along the southern Hungarian border, in Hercegszanto, Bacsbokod, Tompa and Morahalom," the radio said.

Budapest is particularly concerned about the fate of Yugoslavia's Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, but Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said on Thursday that he was "convinced that Yugoslavia does not have an interest in the tension spreading to Hungary or Vojvodina," according to the radio.

Albania is arguably the country most at risk from a spillover of the Kosovo conflict.

An Albanian border guard commander said on Wednesday that his units had noted "an extraordinary massing of Serbian forces and armoured vehicles" along the border with Kosovo.

Meanwhile, independent Albanian radio stations reported on Thursday that Serbian forces had shelled two villages in the northeast of the country, damaging houses.

Flights into and out of Albania, and Yugoslavia's other neighbours, have been badly disrupted by the crisis after NATO closed the airspace of Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Albania.

The Macedonian airline MAT, for example, informed its passengers on Thursday morning that because of the closure of Skopje and Ohrid airports, as well as the air space ban, "the company has been forced by the authorities to cancel all flights until further notice" , Macedonian radio reported.

Romania's airports have also been affected.

The country's transport minister, Traian Basescu, said that the authorities had closed airports near the Yugoslav border in response to a NATO request to create a "safety zone" .

Leading Romanian politicians have expressed great concern over the developments in Yugoslavia.

"Senate Speaker Petre Roman ... is concerned about the possibility of a new Blakan war being triggered," Romanian radio reported.

"Social Democracy Party of Romania Chairman Ion Iliescu considers that the use of foce against a sovereign state cannot but cause concern, especially as all international experience of this type demonstrates that conflicts such as the one in Kosovo cannot be settled by resorting to force," the report continued.

Romania's Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing concern "that the effects of the crisis might ripple through the region" , the Romanian Rompres agency reported.

The agency also said that Romanian Prime Minister Radu Vasile had " asserted his country's readiness" to act as a mediator, if requested.