NEGOTIATIONS ON RELEASE OF EIGHT YUGO SOLDIERS CONTINUE - OSCE

PRISTINA, Jan 9 (Hina) - The OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Verification Mission in Kosovo on Saturday continued talks on liberation of eight Yugoslav soldiers, a spokesman for the Verification Mission, Sandy Blyth, said this morning. The soldiers were arrested by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) on Friday in the north of this conflict-ridden Yugoslav province. According to unofficial information, international monitors and Serbian authorities have reached an agreement on the withdrawal of military forces to the barracks. Kosovo Albanian sources said that the KLA would set the soldiers free only if the commitments from the Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement were met, abducted Albanians released and attempts to provoke Albanians stopped. The situation on Kosovo was increasingly tense on Friday after the arrest of the eight Serbian soldiers, the death of three Serbian policemen in the conflict with the KLA and the killing of one Albanian. Tension has been heightened also by the blockade of the road from the Kosovo capital city Pristina toward Macedonia's capital of Skopje. The road has been blocked for three days since the Serbian civilians set the blockade. (hina) ms