Three Kosovo Serbs were hacked to death and their house was set ablaze last Wednesday in a "heinous crime directed against multi-ethnicity in Kosovo," according to Michael Steiner, head of the United Nations mission administering the province.

Families living in the same street in the town of Obilic in which the victims had died arrived in Belgrade Monday to discuss the latest deadly incident and ask the Serbian government for temporary shelter.

They met Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, Acting President Natasa Micic and Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic -- the key Belgrade official for the province -- and later said they would remain in their home territory, Beta reported.

Kosovo is a Serbian province, but its population is mainly ethnic Albanian, with only a Serbian minority which feels under threat from the majority.

The province has been run under UN jurisdiction since a 1999 NATO bombing campaign that forced the Serbian army to withdraw. Zivkovic said Monday Serbia would ask the international community to "install its real protectorate" in Kosovo, thus ensuring protection for the Serb minority.

"The UN Security Council session on Tuesday is a chance for the international community to begin fulfilling its obligations towards Kosovo and change the climate there," he said.

Both the Serbian government and Kosovo Serbs have often accused NATO's multi-national peacekeeping force and the UN's Kosovo mission of refusing to guarantee safety for the Serbian minority.

The murders, the worst such attack against Kosovo Serbs in a year, came just hours before European Union foreign policy coordinator Javier Solana arrived on a visit to promote dialogue between Kosovo's two estranged communities.

Since the 1999 NATO action, hundreds of Serbs and other non-Albanians have been killed or 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.

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