The families, all residents of the same street in the town of Obilic as the victims, accused both NATO's multi-national peacekeeping force and the UN's Kosovo mission of refusing to guarantee their security.

They said they would ask the Serbian government for temporary shelter in central Serbia.

Three Serbs were hacked to death and their house was set ablaze early Wednesday morning in what has been characterised as a heinous crime directed against multi-ethnicity in Kosovo, according to UN mission chief Michael Steiner.

The murders, which were the worst such attack against Serbs in the troubled province in a year, came just hours before EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived on a visit to promote dialogue between the Albanian and Serb community.

Kosovo, a province of Serbia where ethnic Albanians are in the majority, has been run under UN jurisdiction following the end of a 1999 NATO bombing campaign that forced the marauding Serb army to withdraw.

Since then, hundreds of Serbs and non-Albanians have been killed or have gone missing in the province, and more than 200,000 Serbs have fled fearing reprisals from Albanian extremists.

The 80,000 to 120,000 Serbs that remain live in enclaves essentially protected by 30,000 NATO troops.

WAR.WIRE