The Kosovar delegation had announced Monday, at the start of the second round of the Rambouillet conference on an interim settlement for Kosova, that it agreed to sign the deal negotiated back in February.

In show of increasing defiance to the will of the international community, which has been heavily engaged in efforts to secure a political solution to the Kosova issue, the Serbian side has adamantly refused to sign the agreement. One of their leaders even pretended such a thing did not exist, calling it a fraud!

The U.S. State Department announced Wednesday it was inviting members of the Kosovar Albanian negotiating team at the peace talks in Paris to visit Washington.

Secretary of State Albright asked James Rubin, her assistant and spokesman, to meet with the head of the Kosovar negotiating team, Hashim Thaçi, and "convey on her behalf an invitation to the members of the Kosovar Albanian delegation to travel to Washington, which we expect to happen at the close of this round of talks in Paris," said deputy State Department spokesman James Foley.

White House Deputy National Security Adviser James Steinberg said NATO was "prepared to take actions" in response, as peace talks in Paris teetered on the brink of collapse, CNN reported.

Steinberg and Foley said there were two triggers for NATO military action - a refusal by the Serbs to agree to a Kosova peace deal, and an armed offensive against the Kosova Albanians.

Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said Tuesday. Some 14,000 to 18,000 Serb troops are already in Kosova, he said.

They (the Serbs) "are certainly bracing for war", Bacon told reporters.

Meanwhile, the White House expressed grave concern Wednesday about large-scale Serbian troop movements in and near Kosova and warned the Serbs not to launch an offensive against ethnic Albanians, CNN reported.

White House Deputy National Security Adviser James Steinberg said NATO was "prepared to take actions" in response.

Steinberg and State Department Deputy Spokesman James Foley said there were two triggers for NATO military action - a refusal by the Serbs to agree to a Kosovo peace deal, and an armed offensive against the Kosova Albanians.

"And on both scores, we are seeing increasing evidence that the Serbs are meeting the criteria for triggering a NATO response," Foley said.

Significant troop movements have been reported along the Albanian border, on the road to the Macedonian border and near Prishtina, Kosova's capital.

Most of the Serb reinforcements have been coming via the Nis-Podujeva-Prishtina highway.

International monitors for the Kosova Verification Mission observed a train Tuesday bringing into Kosova a large Serb armored element, including seven T-72-type tanks.

They also said additional tanks were positioned near Podujeva, indicating that two armored brigades had deployed in Kosova, said James Foley.

These villages were shelled yesterday also, while Serbian infantry units have reportedly moved into Verrnicë and Vaganicë villages and started digging in.

Meanwhile, UÇK positions in the Zmiq mountains were pounded by Serb forces last night.

Shooting from small arms was reported Wednesday evening from a building where Serb police live in the town of Mitrovica.

Paramilitary police forces left Mitrovica for Skenderaj today morning.

Sporadic gunfire was reported in the village of Beçuk, Vushtrri municipality, last night. Albanians have fled the village.

Serbian lorries with civilian license plates have been seen transporting goods, including domestic appliances, from abandoned Albanian houses in the Vushtrri municipality.

At least five wounded Serb soldiers were taken to the Mitrovica hospital yesterday. A Serb helicopter with the first-aid sign flew several times from the Serb army barracks to the Mitrovica hospital.

The village of Strofc has come under heavy Serb attack, too.

Fresh Serbian forces and armor - including three armored vehicles, and six lorries full of Serbian police - entered Kosova from Serbia just past 7 o'clock in the morning.

Serbian military has been deployed in the village, four km north of Podujeva, for a couple of months now.

Meanwhile, sources said two Albanian brothers, one of them named Halit Krasniqi, were kidnapped by Serbian forces in Hamidi village on Tuesday morning. They have been unaccounted for ever since.

Another Albanian, Enver Osmani (1971), resident of Dardhishtë ('Krusevac') village, has been unaccounted for since 27 February when Serb police arrested him in Lajthishtë village of Obiliq.

They were killed on 9 March at Kotlinë, but their bodies had remained uncollected ever since.

Eight UÇK fighters have died and nine others have been wounded in the Kaçanik and Hani i Elezit area during the fighting earlier this month, Kosovapress reported.

Serb police raided many Albanian families, and arrested members of the Kelmendi family.

Many village residents fled their homes in fear.

A police expedition headed towards Bellacerkë and Xërxë villages today morning.

An Albanian youth, Bekim Ukë Popaj (18), was arrested Wednesday evening in his native Bellacerkë village and was held in police custody overnight, to only be released today at the intervention of the OSCE verifiers, local LDK sources said.

Meanwhile, four Albanians were convicted yesterday on trumped up political ('terrorism') charges in the Serb-run court in Prizren.

Nysret I. Hoti (1970) was sentenced to 4 years in prison, Isak H. Hoti (1974) to 5 and a half years imprisonment, Sokol H. Morina (1945) to five years, and Vehbi M. Muharremi (1968) to 8 years in prison. They are residents of Ratkoc and Drenoc villages, municipality of Rahovec.

The missing students - Dëfrim R. Tigani (1983), Astrit M. Dreni (1983), Ylli M. Krasniqi (1983) and Artan C. Berishës (1983) - are all residents of the town of Peja.

It is not known who abducted the Albanian students.

An Albanian from Raushiq village, Sylë Dinaj, has been missing since yesterday, when police raided the Radavc village of Peja, where he was staying as a refugee.