By Philippa Fletcher

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Relations between

the Yugoslav government and international

monitors policing its Kosovo province were

strained Monday by a row over alleged

intimidation of U.S. monitors by Yugoslav

soldiers.

NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana,

speaking in Rome, warned that any attempt

to harm or intimidate Western observers in

Kosovo would have serious consequences,

after U.S. observers said Yugoslav soldiers

had fired over their vehicle.

The Yugoslav army denied the allegations,

saying the noise heard by the Americans as

they drove past a military convoy in Kosovo

Sunday was a vehicle backfiring.

William Walker, a senior U.S. envoy who

will head a group of about 2,000 unarmed

international ``verifiers'' in Kosovo, was due

to have raised the issue at talks with

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in

Belgrade Monday afternoon.

A spokesman said Walker would also

express concern over tit-for-tat violence

between Serb forces in Kosovo and ethnic

Albanian guerrillas, which is threatening a

month-old truce.

A report on the talks carried by the official

Tanjug news agency said it had been noted

that Belgrade was helping the observers

carry out their work and that the West

should focus on bringing the ethnic

Albanians guerrillas into line.

``The international community should exert

a definitive and unequivocal influence

toward ending terrorist provocations by

bandit groups trying to obstruct the process

of...a peaceful and political resolution,''

Tanjug said.

Ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs by nine

to one in Kosovo but Serbia has ruled out

independence for the province, where at

least 1,000 people were killed and 250,000

made homeless by fighting earlier this year.

The international community favors greater

Kosovo autonomy, short of outright

secession.

Serbia Sunday invited ethnic Albanian

leaders to direct talks Wednesday over

Kosovo's future. But the offer was rejected

in a statement Monday by the office of the

de facto ethnic Albanian leader.

The statement said the invitation looked like

an attempt to sideline U.S. diplomat

Christopher Hill and his European Union

colleague Wolfgang Petritsch, who are

trying to mediate on a political settlement.

``Belgrade issued an invitation for talks to

lessen pressure from the international

community but this time they will not

succeed because the Albanian side is

interested in a substantial negotiating

process and this is well known by the

international community,'' the statement

said.

The United States currently has 175

observers in its Kosovo Diplomatic

Observer Mission (KDOM), the biggest

contingent of an international group

overseeing a Yugoslav troop pullout agreed

by Milosevic in October under the threat of

NATO air strikes.

A Western official in the Kosovo capital,

Pristina, said Sunday's incident involving the

U.S. KDOM could have been a mistake but

that it was not the first case of intimidation.

``There have been a series of incidents over

the past few weeks where police and army

vehicles have swerved at U.S. KDOM guys,

where weapons have been trained, not to

fire but just to intimidate,'' said the official,

who declined to be named.

Both Serb and ethnic Albanian sources

reported fresh clashes Monday between

Serb police and ethnic Albanian guerrillas,

who are fighting to split Kosovo from Serbia.

Reut12:15 11-16-98