Two Albanians were killed and 12 others wounded in Serb shelling of a border town and police posts yesterday, Albania's interior minister said. He called for NATO to silence the Serb guns.
Meanwhile speculation was rife that hundreds, maybe thousands, of the missing Kosovan Albanian refugees, may have been victims of a major Serb massacre.
Yesterday's cross-border attack was the first time that Yugoslav shelling caused deaths on the Albanian side of the border since the conflict erupted.
"This is really an act of aggression and is aimed at widening the conflict. The situation in the area is very tense," the Albanian Interior Minister, Mr Petro Koci, said, adding that heavy artillery was used.
He called for "NATO intervention to neutralise the Serb artillery near the Albanian border that has repeatedly fired at Albanian territory in past days."
- The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, arrived in Brussels yesterday for talks that she said would underscore the unity of purpose of NATO's 19 members. Ms Albright said today's meeting of NATO foreign ministers was "to show the unity of the alliance" that she described as "wedgeproof".
She said that public opinion among member countries had been scandalised by the massacres and other atrocities committed by Serb forces against the Kosovar Albanians. "We have been galvanised by events on the ground and our publics have also been appalled by the massacres," she told reporters.
She also said that certain aspects of the Rambouillet peace plan discussed in France last month should be modified, in particular provisions that allow for 5,000 Serbian troops to be stationed in Kosovo.
"Some parts of Rambouillet have been overtaken by events," she said, adding that there should be fewer forces from Belgrade allowed in the region.
There were demonstrations in many capitals for and against the NATO campaign and a number of arrests in Germany and Italy. Police in the Italian town of Aviano clashed with a group of pacifists who staged a protest near the US air base that has been the hub for NATO aircraft on bombing raids to Yugoslavia.
Demonstrators tried to unfurl a banner that read "Stop the war" when police moved in on the group shortly after four jets took off from the base in northern Italy.
Organisers of the protest said police fired tear gas to prevent the group from getting close to the entrance of the air base, injuring three.
Police said they responded to "provocations" from the demonstrators who were preparing to throw rocks.
Helen Kingham adds from Brussels:
NATO air attacks on Kosovo continued yesterday and in very bad weather conditions. Because of the Orthodox Easter weekend, "relative restraint was used" and the bombardment was restricted to the Pristina area.
However, the Yugoslav state news agency said one missile hit a residential area of the country's second city, Novi Sad, late yesterday causing heavy damage to civilian property but no dead or injured.
Explosions were also heard earlier in other towns, it said. A small child was reported killed as diplomats stepped up efforts to find a way out of the Kosovo conflict.
There is mounting evidence however, that NATO plans to increase the density and strength of air attacks shortly. The US and Britain sent in more aircraft yesterday to join the existing strike force against Serbia, moving the Allied forces into top gear and high capability.
The British destroyer, HMS Invincible is now firmly in position in the Adriatic with an additional seven Harrier jump jet fighters, bringing the number to 19, which is as many as the Invincible can hold. They are equipped with laser guided bombs. The Invincible also has eight Sea King close combat helicopters.
Over the next couple of days, 125 flights will bring in 24 new Apache combat helicopters and multiple rocket systems from the US to Albania for use in close encounter combat situations. Some have already arrived but the assembly process will take about two weeks to complete.
Today the Irish aid agency GOAL will make a second attempt to fly an aircraft filled with supplies for refugees into Tirana. The aircraft, struck by lightning over the Albanian capital on Saturday, had to divert to Athens for repairs.