UN officials have begun an investigation into Thursday's shelling of a Kosovo village near the Macedonian border in which three people died, one of them a British television producer. The attack took place at Krivenik, close to the scene of conflict between Macedonian security forces and ethnic Albanian rebels.
The UN administrator of Kosovo, Mr Hans Haekkerup, said he would be meeting Macedonian government representatives in Skopje and "raising the urgent need for restraint by the Macedonian forces and for dialogue to replace the shooting".
The UN said 10 shells landed in Krivenik and it is examining the craters left by the mortars to determine who fired them. Both the Macedonian security forces and the rebel National Liberation Army have denied responsibility.
The NATO secretary-general, Lord Robertson, told reporters after meetings in Warsaw: "It is important we establish what the truth is in case this issue could trigger further violence." He had spoken twice to Macedonia's President Boris Trajkovski to ask him to ensure a proper investigation was conducted. Mr Trajkovski had told him his armed forces were not to blame.
Some 1,000 Kosovo Albanians took part in a protest march to Krivenik, waving banners condemning Macedonia for the deaths and chanting "U-C-K, U-C-K," the initials in Albanian of both the Kosovo Liberation Army and the National Liberation Army.
A statement from the province's largest political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, said: "Despite all the warnings of the international community that Macedonia needs to act towards stopping the conflict and starting a dialogue with Albanians in Macedonia, they have continued their offensives and they have spread them into Kosovo territory as well."
Two of the victims have been named: Mr Kerem Lawton (30), a British national who was working as a producer with Associated Press Television News, and a Kosovo Albanian, Mr Baki Krasniqi (19). A second ethnic Albanian civilian died later in hospital.
Mr Nikola Dimitrov, security adviser to the Macedonian President, said the village was beyond the range of the mortars of the nearest government forces four miles away. Commander Sokoli, a regional rebel leader, said the insurgents lacked the military capability to strike the village from their positions in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The Macedonian army said it was continuing its offensive. Col Blagoja Markovski, the army spokesman, said troops met no resistance in efforts to "clear out terrorists" from the northern border with Kosovo.
On a visit to Vienna this week, the Macedonian Foreign Minister, Mr Srdjan Kerim, told the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe that improving the status of his country's ethnic Albanians was a key government concern.