Around 3,000 people attended a rally organised by one of the main opposition groups, the Alliance for Change, in the town of Pancevo, just outside Belgrade.

"Down with Milosevic!", "Resign, resign!", the demonstrators chanted.

Around 4,000 protesters turned out in pouring rain

Elsewhere in the first protest action in the capital itself, students scattered thousands of leaflets demanding the resignation of Mr Milosevic. They read: "Resistance is the answer. There will be no other way."

There are also reports of smaller demonstrations in other cities including a protest by army reservists in the southern town of Nis.

However correspondents say the Serbian opposition remains divided, with the leader of the other main group, the controversial former minister Vuk Draskovic, saying he will not join the Alliance campaign.

Call for army support

Clarence Mitchell:"There are some two hundred crimes a day being reported"

At the gathering in Pancevo, protest organisers called on the Yugoslav army to end their support for President Milosevic and back their calls him to quit.

"The army and the police must only be with the people, not the leaders," Vladan Batic of the Christian Democratic party told the crowd.

The appeal follows a declaration by General Nebojsa Pavkovic - the commander of the Third Army and an indicted war criminal - that the army would prevent any overthrow of the current regime.

Right to return

General Pavkovic: Wanted for war crimes

Earlier General Pavkovic also announced that Yugoslavia would retain the right to send its troops back into Kosovo if it thinks the United Nations is not in control there.

He said Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity were guaranteed under UN Security Council resolution 1244, which stipulates the terms of the Kosovo peace deal.

"That equates to a right of ownership," the Belgrade news agency Tanjug quoted him as saying. "We therefore have the right to send our forces in at any moment".

Schröder visits

Clarence Mitchell: "There are five thousand German troops on the ground"

In Kosovo German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been visiting German K-For soldiers and leaders of both main ethnic groups.

He is the first leader of a major Nato country to visit the province since the alliance moved in.

In Prizren, he praised his country's peacekeeping troops for presenting "a picture of a peaceful Germany" to the world. He told them could help consign the memory of Nazi atrocities committed in the region to history.

Chancellor Schröder: Lunch with his K-For soldiers

"Your presence gives people the security that allows them to stay," he said, referring at least in part to the concerns of the Serb population in the province.

Mr Schröder, who was cheered by ethnic Albanian crowds, also promised reconstruction aid, including over $500,000 to help rebuild Serb homes in the province.

For its part the European Union has announced that it is providing about $150m this year to assist reconstruction efforts in Kosovo.