The Associated Press
Monday, February 19, 2007; 5:40 PM

PRISTINA, Serbia -- An explosion damaged three U.N. vehicles in Kosovo's capital Monday, causing no injuries but raising tensions amid ongoing negotiations on the disputed province's future.

NATO-led peacekeepers sealed the blast area in downtown Pristina, and were investigating, police spokesman Veton Elshani said.

The cause of the explosion was not clear, but police suspeced the U.N. mission had been the target of an attack, he said. A civilian vehicle was also damaged.

The blast came 10 days after two people were killed in clashes between police and ethnic Albanian protesters who were objecting to a U.N. proposal for Kosovo's final status.

Although formally part of Serbia, the province has been a U.N. protectorate since 1999 when NATO bombing halted a Serb military crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. Nearly 10,000 ethnic Albanians were killed and almost 1 million fled their homes. About 1,000 Serbs were killed in revenge attacks by Kosovo Albanians.

Ethnic Albanian leaders, who are insisting on full independence, and Serbian officials, who demand the province remain within Serb borders, planned to meet Wednesday in Vienna, Austria, for a final round of negotiations on Kosovo's future.

It would be their last chance to influence the U.N. plan on Kosovo, which currently proposes granting Kosovo internationally supervised statehood.