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Tuesday, November 28 1:55 AM SGT

Albanian woman, two children killed in tense southern Serbia

VELIKI TRNOVAC, Yugoslavia, Nov 27 (AFP) -

An ethnic Albanian woman and two children were killed Monday in southern Serbia
when their
tractor hit a mine, a village official here told AFP.

Earlier, a doctor at a local health center said that a child was killed and six
people were injured
around 9:00 am (0800 GMT) about a kilometre from the village of Veliki Trnovac.

He said a tractor carring ten people drove over an anti-tank mine on the road
leading from the
demilitarised buffer zone to Kosovo.

The area is mostly populated by ethnic Albanians, and the group is thought to
have been trying to
leave the region during a lull in fighting between Serbian police and ethnic
Albanian guerrillas.

On Saturday, the guerrillas had declared a unilateral ceasefire

Beqiri said that the three families from the village had ignored advice not to
take the road due to the
danger of mines.

The village of 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.

Beqiri said that about one thousand out of 8,000 Albanian villagers have left
Veliki Trnovac since
Friday.

According to UNHCR officials, more than 2,000 civilians have fled the
Albanian-majority Presevo
valley region, which separatist rebels hope to join with Kosovo.

Tension was high in the Presevo valley ahead of a Serb deadline for NATO troops
in Kosovo to
stop rebel activity in the zone before 7:00 pm (1800 GMT) Monday.

Otherwise, a Serb minister had threatened, they would face the prospect of
unilateral Yugoslav
action, a breach of last year's ceasefire deal between Belgrade and the
alliance.

On a visit to Vienna Monday, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica however ruled
out sending the
Yugoslav army into the buffer zone.

Meanwhile, the rebels extended their ceasefire until Friday.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic, who had toured the region told
reporters that
Belgrade would accept the ceasefire offer unconditionally.

Covic, an ally of Kostunica, insisted in the nearby town of Bujnovac that
Belgrade "is determined to
find a diplomatic solution to the situation on the ground."

"The wrong policy of the previous regime (of ousted leader Slobodan Milosevic)
has left its tragic
traces ... but the Serbian government will do everything to reach a solution by
diplomatic means,"
Covic said.

He insisted that Belgrade's security forces have been deployed in accordance
with the military
agreements with the Atlantic alliance.

Tomovic said that the police forces "have a task to hermetically seal off the
terrorists, to prevent any
of their attempts to break out" of their territory on the frontier with UN-run
Kosovo, from where
they receive supplies and reinforcements.

Meanwhile, the Yugoslav news agency Beta reported that Tomovic had announced new
police
forces arriving at the edge of the security zone.

Kostunica himself was expected to arrive to the region later Monday.

The Yugoslav army chief of staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic said the military had
proposed that the
crisis should be solved "through negotiations with the Albanians and the
international community."

"What is happening is not spontaneous at all. We think that this is a
well-organised provocation of
Albanian terrorist forces who are trying to destabilise this area and link it to
Kosovo," Pavkovic said.

"We hope that his provocation will not extend into a conflict," Pavkovic said,
warning that the army
would "respond to any provocation outside the demilitarised zone."