Gunmen raked a United Nations patrol car with bullets late on Tuesday, killing a Filipino UN policeman and his Kosovo Albanian partner in what looked like an ambush.

The motive for the killing, which comes on the heels of Kosovo?s worst spasm of ethnic violence since 1999, was not immediately clear, UN police spokesman Derek Chappell said. ?There is no evidence of linkage,? he said, rejecting speculation Albanian extremists blamed for last week?s upsurge of clashes were taking revenge on UN police for Albanians killed by NATO-led troops in some of the confrontations. UN police officials said officers were ?angry, sad and emotional?. The attack, in the village of Luzane some 20 km (12 miles) north of the capital Pristina, occurred just ahead of a visit by European Union foreign and security envoy Javier Solana to discuss the latest crisis in Kosovo.

A Kosovo police source said a saloon car had pulled up alongside the clearly marked orange-and-white patrol car and gunmen opened fire with rifles. The patrol had returned fire. An Albanian police interpreter was lightly wounded. The Koha Ditore daily, quoting police, said two AK 47 automatic rifles had been discovered at the attack scene.

A report that one attacker had also been killed was denied by Kosovo police. However, a Reuters photographer said NATO troops on Wednesay raided the Pristina house of what an officer on the scene called ?one of the perpetrators?. In dozens of Albanian-Serb clashes in the space of 48 hours last week, 28 people were killed and 3,600 Serbs driven from their homes in enclaves all over Kosovo.

NATO troops and UN police, often caught in the middle of the battles, restored order at the weekend after NATO rushed in reinforcements. Calm had prevailed until Tuesday night?s attack.

Western powers backed Serbia?s charge that the wave of attacks last week was orchestrated and appeared aimed at ?ethnically cleansing? central Kosovo of remaining Serbs. Solana?s trip coincides with the fifth anniversary of the start of NATO?s 78-day bombing war against Serbia in 1999 to force Belgrade to withdraw its troops from Kosovo and stop persecuting Albanian civilians during a separatist uprising.

Britain, Germany, France and other NATO allies rushed 2,000 more troops in Kosovo last week to help quell the violence, bring the peace force to over 20,000-strong.

Shaban Buza