BELGRADE, Apr 3: NATO's first attack on downtown Belgrade today destroyed the headquarters of the Yugoslav forces accused of routing ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, and the alliance decided to send troops to help deal with the refugees, reports AP.

Three explosions rocked a government quarter of Belgrade just before 1 am (2300 GMT Friday). Flames quickly engulfed the buildings of the Yugoslav and Serbian interior ministries.

Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic, whose police centre was burned to the ground, said the attack was "an act of monsters and criminals."

The bombings, close to residential areas and the city's main medical complex, shook a nearby maternity hospital and a row of embassies but they were untouched by the fire.

Angry residents joined hands, shouting "Serbia"! "Serbia"! Many pinned target symbols to their jackets, challenging NATO to hit them.

Hours after the bombings, fires at the Yugoslav and Serbian interior ministries were mostly extinguished.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon confirmed that downtown Belgrade was targeted.

State television reported NATO missiles hit an army barracks in Vranje in southeastern Serbia, while Tanjug said NATO jets struck targets’near the western Kosovo town of Klina, 50 kilometres west of Pristina, the provincial capital. It was the first reported attack near Klina, located along a major highway

Junction used by Serb forces.

The Serb-run Media Centre in Pristina reported that missiles had hit military barracks in the southern Kosovo town of Urosevac and an explosion occurred near the border town of Kacanik.

Tanjug said missiles hit the southwestern Kosovo town of Djakovica twice on Friday, and that other attacks killed two ethnic Albanians and injured six. including two children.

Today's bombings sigrftilled a promised escalation of the NATO air campaign Intended to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept a peace plan on Kosovo, a province of Serbia. Yugoslavia's dominant republic.

Despite 11 days of missile and bombing raids on Yugoslav targets. Milosevic's forces are continuing a terror campaign to drive ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo. NATO officials say.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said more than 2.90.000 ethnic Albanian refugees had been expelled over the past 10 days and estimated that 200.000 to 300.000 more were heading toward the borders.

NATO decided today to send up to 6.000 Italian troops to Albania to protect the humanitarian operation dealing with the refugee flow. Shea said.

In neighbouring Macedonia where 50.000 people waited to cross the border, the government announced today it could not accept any more Kosovo refugees and the army would block the illegal entry of any more of the displaced.

Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic, has large Serb and ethnic Albanian communities and fears the tensions that exploded into open conflict in Kosovo could sweep across its territory.

The NATO air war against Yugoslavia has been targeting military and security units directed by the defense and interior ministries. The Western alliance has warned it would expand its targets, saying no place in Yugoslavia would be immune from strikes.

"We recognised when we started that this air campaign would not be a week or two operation." US President Bill Clinton said yesterday. "We must be determined, we must be persistent, we must be patient if we expect to see this mission through."

But signs of cracks in NATO unity appeared today Italy's

foreign ministry expressed support for Russian President Boris Yeltsin's call for a summit on Kosovo by the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations.

Tile Clinton administration declared today that no target is off-limits' in the campaign to pressure Serb forces to end their campaign of repression in Kosovo.

President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, declared the Kosovo operation "a difficult and dangerous one, but it's necessary and right, and we must stand with all our NATO allies to see it through."

"Our nation cannot do everything. We can't stop all the violence. But there are times when looking away simply is not an option." he said.

Meanwhile, the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, a symbol of American military might, entered the western Mediterranean Sea today and was heading toward the Adriatic Sea off the Yugoslav coast. Defense officials said it was likely to be ordered to stay in the Adriatic to join the NATO battle.