FROM TOM WALKER IN TIRANA

SALI BERISHA, the former Albanian president, has depicted the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as an ncompetent collection of rival gangs, poorly equipped and trained, and riven by feuding. He claimed that the socialist-led government of Albania was profiting from arms racketeering in northern Albania at the KLA's expense and he urged that the guerrillas be reorganised with the help of Nato and the Albanian Army.

Mr Berisha, whose power has been greatly diminished during the past two years, refused to recognise the KLA's new government for Kosovo, and instead urged Albanians to back the pacifist Ibrahim Rugova, whose influence is also waning rapidly.

KLA officials in Ti. The diplomats said it could be Mr Rugova's last chance for a political revival. Mr Berisha admitted ruefully that he was unlikely to meet Mr Blair.

"The KLA should fight for national dignity," he said. "They will not free Kosovo - Nato will do that - but dignity is vital. But what is our Government doing? Thousands of young soldiers are coming from all over the West and are having two weeks' training with really unskilled people. The Albanian Government, which is more interested in trafficking, is the root of all their problems."

Mr Berisha, a former cardiologist, said Nato should plan a full-scale invasion of Yugoslavia. "I am for entering from all sides, and freeing the country from the Milosevic regime," he said.

Most controversially, he alleged that the KLA had killed Mr Rugova's deputy in the Democratic League for Kosovo, Fehmi Agani. The KLA and Western diplomats said the claim was preposterous