Central Kosovo was shaken by the sound of intense heavy weapons fire yesterday, but reporters in the area were unable to locate the source of the firing.
Eight salvoes each of between 12 and 17 shells were heard in the space of 10 minutes by reporters on Mount Berisha, 30km (20 miles) west of the capital, Pristina.
Earlier in the day the ethnic Albanian-run Kosovo Information Centre in Pristina reported that a family of four ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo, three of them children aged 12, six and two, and an Albanian national were shot dead by Yugoslav army border guards while returning to their home in Kosovo.
The family reportedly fled to Albania three weeks ago but decided to return home after an accord ending fighting in Kosovo was reached last week between Mr Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy, and President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia.
France warned Mr Milosevic yesterday that the threat of NATO air strikes still stood five days before a deadline for troop withdrawals from Kosovo expires.
The French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, said in a radio interview that while Mr Milosevic was in the process of withdrawing forces from Kosovo, "it was not enough, and the NATO threat remained."
NATO has given Belgrade until October 27th to reduce the level of its forces in the province. Mr Vedrine said NATO remains on alert ready to carry out punishing air strikes against Serb targets if given the go-ahead by western governments.
In Bucharest the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, expressed confidence yesterday that members of the UN Security Council would support a new resolution increasing the pressure on Belgrade. He was referring to calls for a new Security Council resolution to formalise the deal struck last week by Mr Holbrooke and Mr Milosevic.
"I am absolutely confident we'll get a Security Council resolution, which will put added pressure on Milosevic and which he would be very unwise to ignore," he said in Romania at the end of a three-day Balkans tour. "The text will make it clear that all the UN, including Russia, are behind this agreement."
Russia has threatened to veto any such resolution, which would sanction the use of force if Belgrade failed to keep to its commitments.