Kosovo media reported Tuesday that one armed group presenting itself as the Army for Kosovo Independence, or UPK, was setting up illegal road blocks at night in the province's west.

NATO and local police launched the probe "due to isolated incidents related to the existence of irregular check points in limited areas," the head of KFOR's southwest press office, German Lieutenant Colonel Siegfried Jooss, told

KFOR's top commander, Italian General Giuseppe Valotto, on Tuesday assured the Kosovo public that the "illegal operations of several persons cannot endanger the security situation in general."

"I am sure 95 percent of citizens want peace and a calm situation," he said, stressing KFOR was ready to confront any disturbance to maintain security.

The Koha Ditore newspaper said the armed groups who were wearing camouflage fatigues and masks had recently even stopped a KFOR vehicle during the night at one of its checkpoints in the region.

Kosovo's electronic media reported they recently received an email in which the UPK claimed it was operating in the area in order to prevent any possibility of the province becoming "conditionally independent".

The UN Security Council is expected to launch delicate talks next week on the status of Kosovo, a divided province whose ethnic Albanian majority is seeking full independence, which Belgrade firmly opposes.

The UN-administered province's authorities said they are yet to identify the existence of any armed groups in Kosovo.

"There is only one army in Kosovo. That's KFOR," Jooss said adding, "There is no evidence of any irregular organisation" in the west of the province.

"From time to time we see reports of unspecific groups who claim that they are operating in Kosovo," Neeraj Singh, the UN mission in Kosovo spokesman, said last week.

"We have no reason to believe that they exist, at the same time the police do investigate all such (media) reports," Singh said.

The remote and mountainous western part of Kosovo has been a stronghold of hardcore nationalist Albanians and criminal groups involved in arms and drugs smuggling since the start of the 1998-1999 Kosovo war.

It is widely believed another shadowy group calling itself the Albanian National Army, which was put on UN and US lists of terrorist organisations last year, has been active in the region.

Still technically part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since a bombing campaign by the military alliance ended a crackdown by Serbian forces against Albanian separatists in June 1999.

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