Seven killed in attack on Serbian bus in Kosovo

The KFOR peacekeeping force in Pristina said unknown attackers detonated an explosive charge at a roadside near Podujevo in the northeastern part of the province when the bus - under escort by Swedish KFOR soldiers - passed at around 1030 GMT, a spokesman said.

The attackers escaped.

The bus served an express route used by Serbs to enter and leave the province, and was part of a convoy consisting of seven buses and several KFOR military vehicles.

U.S. army doctors at Camp Bondsteel were treating the 10 Serbs who were seriously injured.

In a protest demonstration that followed the Podujevo attack, a Serb woman was killed in Laple Selo, a village near Pristina. She and other Serbs were blocking the highway from Pristina to Macedonia when she was struck by a car and was killed instantly.

Reports saying four more Serbs were killed near Strepce in Kosovo in another attack were not confirmed. A spokeswoman for the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) said the reports were probably based on a misunderstanding.

The Yugoslav parliament broke off a session Friday afternoon to protest the attack on the Serb convoy.

Shortly after returning from a recess, both chambers of the parliament said the stoppage was a "warning and a call" to the United Nations administration (UNMIK) and NATO-led (KFOR) peacekeeping missions.

"It is a warning and a call... to all in charge of security to respect the (U.N.) Resolution 1244 and to jointly stop terrorist groups from sabotaging the implementation of peace plans," chairman of the lower chamber Dragoljub Micunovic said.

All factions agreed with the decision to stop working until Monday.

Earlier, federal Interior Minister Zoran Zivkovic had described Friday's attack as a reaction of ethnic Albanians to Belgrade's peace proposal for the volatile Presevo Valley.

"It is obvious that Albanian terrorists and extremists decided to raise tensions to prevent the plan, which is generally accepted," he said in the federal parliament.

In his words, Yugoslavia should demand from the international community to meet its obligations and protect Serbs and other non- Albanians in Kosovo.

The presidents of Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, at a summit meeting in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on Friday condemned "violent and illegal actions of ethnically motivated and armed groups" in southern Serbia.

(kil/dpa)