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Tuesday, November 28 4:12 AM SGT

Belgrade masses its troops but will gave a chance to diplomacy

BUJANOVAC, Yugoslavia, Nov 27 (AFP) -

Belgrade security forces considerably reinforced their presence in tense
southern Serbia Monday, as
authorities tried diplomacy in their conflict with ethnic Albanian separatist
guerillas.

Authorities were trying to "avoid a new war" in the region, and were in touch
with NATO-led
peacekeepers in the area, one of three Serbia's Interior Ministers, Slobodan
Tomovic, told AFP.

The KFOR troops had asked for "one or two days to make the guerillas withdraw,"
he added.

Tomovic, who had met earlier on Monday with local officials and police deployed
in the
demilitarized buffer zone, said that Belgrade was "ready to wait several days
with an aim to avoid a
war."

Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica also arrived here late Monday to oversee
the tense situation,
and Belgrade accepted an offer by the rebels to extend their ceasefire until
Friday.

Last week the guerrillas killed three Serbian police men and regained control of
several villages.

On the road leading to the largely Albanian-populated town Veliki Trnovac, a
dozen special police
vehicles were positioned.

Yugoslav forces were also deployed around the main power plant in the region,
while other
policemen checked people's identity papers and vehicles.

In Bujanovac, armoured police vehicles equipped with light machine guns were
deployed throughout
the town, while Yugoslav army vehicles were circulating along its streets.

"We can confirm that (the guerrillas) are very present and that there is no
obvious sign of
withdrawal," a police spokesperson in Lucane said.

In Veliki Trnovac, dozens of men gathered despite heavy rain awaiting a return
of local official Galip
Beqiri, who had left for Bujanovac earlier Monday to discuss the situation.

Many were talking about the death of an Albanian woman and two children, killed
as their tractor
drove over an anti-tank mine on the road leading to Kosovo, just a mile from the
village.

Six other Albanians were injured and hospitalised in the accident.

The group was trying to flee the region to reach Kosovo fearing further
conflicts between Belgrade
security forces and the Albanian guerillas.

Like hundreds of other villagers, they turned a deaf ear to calls from local
officials not to leave the
town because the roads were presumably heavily mined.

Veliki Trnovac is situated in the officially five-kilometer (three-mile) wide
buffer zone, set by the a
1999 military accord between NATO and Belgrade.

Only the Serb police are allowed to patrol the zone, but are not allowed to
deploy anything more
powerful than light weapons.