NATO Secretary General George Robertson expressed his "personal sorrow" and extended "sympathies" to the families of seven people who died in a bomb attack on a convoy of buses carrying Serbs in northern Kosovo today.
"I also want to express my shock and outrage at this disgraceful and cowardly incident," Gen Robertson said in a statement.
Forty-three people were injured in the blast.
"It is evident this was a deliberate attack on innocent civilians," he said. "NATO did not conduct its air campaign in order to see ethnic cleansing by one group replaced by the ethnic attacks and intimidation of another."
Gen Robertson said the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR "remains in Kosovo to protect all its citizens. We will not tolerate ethnic violence and will not rest until the perpetrators of this appalling crime have been apprehended."
Europe's foreign and security policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, called on both sides in Kosovo "to lend every support to KFOR and UNMIK (the UN mission in Kosovo) in their efforts to apprehend the perpetrators and to bring them to justice."
AFP