Villagers flee from fighting amid Serb buildup
Mortar attacks resume despite NATO warnings

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Ethnic Albanians fled villages on tractor-pulled trailers by the dozens to escape new fighting and a buildup of Serb forces Friday, despite NATO warnings to both sides to refrain from violence during a recess in peace talks.

Mortar fire resounded in northern Kosovo in what apparently was a second day of clashes in the Bukos area between the Yugoslav army and rebel forces.Serb police blocked roads into the area, but humanitarian aid workers said they saw about 30 Yugoslav tanks and armored cars in the area. Four tanks were poised at the edge of the village of Nevoljane, about 15 miles northwest of the capital Pristina.

Field workers for the U.N. refugee agency said four civilians were wounded by shrapnel and bullets Thursday in the village of Ljubovec.

NATO and Western officials are concerned about the new fighting and the massing of Yugoslav and Serb forces and are trying to hold both sides to a cease-fire during a 2 1/2-week suspension in peace talks.

The U.S. Defense Department says Yugoslavia has deployed 4,500 troops on the border of the separatist-minded province in southern Serbia, backed by tanks, artillery, and armored personnel carriers.

"What frightens me and worries me is that these weeks are taken advantage of for the purpose of conflict rather than for consolidation" of steps toward a peace deal, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said Friday.

He told Spain's Channel 9 TV that there would be punitive airstrikes on Serb targets "only if absolutely necessary. . . and always in the service of a political objective."

Fighting in Kosovo began almost a year ago when Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic sent forces to crush a KLA insurrection. More than 2,000 people have died and 300,000 others -- mostly ethnic Albanians -- have been displaced by the fighting.

The new fighting came as ethnic Albanian negotiators returned to Kosovo from talks in Rambouillet, France, which ended this week without substantial agreement on how to bring lasting peace to the impoverished province in Serbia, the main republic in Yugoslavia.

While the Serbs refused to let NATO troops enforce a peace plan -- a key ingredient to any deal -- ethnic Albanians agreed to sign a tentative agreement when talks resume March 15.

The top Kosovo Albanian political leader reiterated Friday that his side will make good on its pledge.

Ibrahim Rugova, the pacifist leader of pro-independence ethnic Albanians, expressed approval of the agreement -- broad autonomy as an interim solution without formal secession, combined with NATO troops as an implementing force.

"The agreement will have political and military guarantees for its implementation . . . the guarantees of NATO," he said.

While Rugova did not head the Albanian negotiating team in France, he remains an influential leader among the 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo.

But another top Albanian figure, Adem Demaci, called the deal insufficient in an interview with the Albanian-language daily Kosova Sot.