Negotiations continue as at least 17 die in clashes

As international efforts to negotiate a ceasefire continued, clashes between Serbian security forces and ethnic Albanian separatists…

As international efforts to negotiate a ceasefire continued, clashes between Serbian security forces and ethnic Albanian separatists reportedly left at least 17 people dead - including 10 policemen - in the troubled Serb province of Kosovo in the past 24 hours.

Serb sources said ethnic Albanian guerrillas killed 10 policemen in Kosovo as diplomats sought ways to end the violence.

Efforts to arrange a ceasefire and bring the two sides into negotiations continued with the arrival of the US ambassador to Macedonia, Mr Chris Hill, in Kosovo's regional capital, Pristina.

Mr Hill, who spearheads the US effort to mediate in the region, met Dr Ibrahim Rugova, whose position as chief representative of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians has been challenged by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

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The two focused on the situation on the ground and on people displaced by the continuing fighting. An estimated 200,000 people have fled and hundreds have died since fighting broke out in February.

Mr Hill also met the deputy Yugoslav Prime Minister, Mr Nikola Sainovic.

There was no immediate word on their discussions and Mr Hill left without making any statements to reporters.

But political sources said it was assumed they would talk about the peace plan submitted by the six-nation Contact Group.

Many ethnic Albanians are demanding independence for Kosovo, which was stripped of its autonomy by Belgrade in 1989. The international community supports broad autonomy for Kosovo, but not independence.

The Contact Group on Kosovo - which includes the US and Russia - has drawn up new proposals for the political future of the province.

The proposals emerged at the weekend as it became increasingly clear that NATO is unlikely to use military force to end the crisis.

Plans for a constitutional settlement "would give the people of Kosovo control of their own internal affairs, control over their own security and real autonomy", said the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook.

There were indications that Belgrade, seat of the Serbian government, was willing to discuss the plans, he added. "We are making it plain to both sides that this is not a war that either side can win."

Earlier, as the fighting continued Serbian police sources had said four policemen were killed in overnight clashes near a lake but did not specify the location. The toll later rose to 10.

The Serbian-run Pristina media centre reported that three members of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) were killed yesterday in a clash with police near Duraj.

Four ethnic Albanian villagers were killed in sustained Serbian fire on Erec, in western Kosovo, ethnic Albanian sources said.

In Erec, the dead were identified as two people, aged 80, a 63year-old, and a 19-year-old, the head of the Albanian Human Rights Committee, Mr Sokol Dobruna, said.

The Kosovo Information Centre (KIC), linked to the leading pro-independence ethnic Albanian party, said Serb forces surrounded Duraj near the Macedonian border early yesterday.

The KIC, quoting witnesses, said civilians were fleeing Duraj, a pattern seen across the province as Serb security forces seize territory previously controlled by the lightly-armed KLA.

The rebels, however, succeeded in recapturing the strategic western stronghold of Likovac from Serb forces yesterday, an AFP correspondent reported.